NBA-China crisis: Daryl Morey’s tweet controversy follows him to Philadelphia as streaming giant Tencent blocks 76ers
- Morey said he feared for the safety of his family at one point in fallout from supporting Hong Kong’s protest movement
- The controversy bleeds into a second season, with the pandemic now a major factor in any move to improve NBA-China relations
Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey doubled down on what has become one of the most infamous tweets in the past few years.
The Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers, in Shanghai immediately following the tweet, found themselves sucked into the storm as NBA commissioner Adam Silver was able to temper enough minds to see two exhibition games go off in China, but when the league returns to its largest overseas market is anybody’s guess.
Morey did not do a press interview for nearly a year and the NBA found itself squarely in the sights of the Chinese Communist Party. Games were pulled on CCTV and fans stateside held up signs during games supporting Hongkongers as two competing political ideologies crashed headfirst into one another.
More than a year later, while the firestorm has died down, the embers are still hot.