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NBA commissioner Adam Silver will face ‘retribution’ for defaming China, state media says
- Basketball league chief ‘fabricated lies out of nothing … to paint China as unforgiving’ and ‘please American politicians’, CCTV says
- Commentary comes after Silver said on Thursday that Beijing had asked him to sack Houston Rockets’ Daryl Morey over Hong Kong tweet
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Chinese state media has warned that NBA commissioner Adam Silver will face “retribution” for defaming China in the latest twist to a dispute that began with a basketball team executive tweeting his support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
In a commentary on Saturday, state broadcaster CCTV said Silver had “crossed the bottom line” by continuing to defend Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, who posted an image on Twitter on October 4 saying “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong”.
Making his first comments about the dispute since returning from a contentious visit to China for two preseason games, Silver said on Thursday that the Chinese government had asked the NBA to fire Morey.
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“We said there’s no chance that’s happening,” he said in an interview at the Time 100 Health Summit in New York. “There’s no chance we’ll even discipline him.”
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Friday that Beijing had never made such a demand.
CCTV said Silver had crossed a line.
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