Why the invasion of ‘socially conscious’ NBA coaches and stars in China may not be cause for worry
- As China prepares to host the FIBA Basketball World Cup, defending champions Team USA will be led by two of the most opinionated coaches in NBA history
On behalf of the 60 million residents of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, I would like to extend the heartiest of welcomes to Team USA as they prepare to defend their championship, and hopefully their freedom, this coming week at the FIBA Basketball World Cup. And a very special welcome to China as well for two men who have redefined the genre of leadership, head coach Gregg Popovich and assistant Steve Kerr.
A graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Coach Pop has won five championships in his 23 seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. His assistant Kerr has been coaching the Golden State Warriors for the past five seasons and led his team to the finals every year, winning three of five.
However, both are so much more than their numbers and have used their pulpit of fame to relentlessly voice their opposition towards the US president and his “divisive, hate-filled agenda”. Naturally, it has inspired a massive chorus of “keep politics out of sports” from their detractors. But, sorry folks, politics and sport are as intertwined as tear gas and Hong Kong.
A few weeks back a Hong Kong ice hockey team were up 11-2 over the China team at the National Youth Games. With a minute remaining, the Chinese players broke every code in the game by ganging up in groups of two and three to pummel individual Hong Kong players. But do not make it a political issue, apologists on the mainland were quick to counter. However, everything between China and Hong Kong is political these days, which is why the wumao troll army was out in full force earning their five cents by blaming the sport, not the players. Fighting is part of the game, they said, it’s just hockey.
No, it’s not hockey, it’s China. Gang up to pummel someone in hockey and you will never get on the ice again. Gang up to pummel someone in China and they will give you a stick and shield and send you to Hong Kong to “police” the streets. The greatness of sports lies in the fact that it is a window into a culture. How you play the games is who you are.
But I don’t want to bore Pop and Steve with all this local drama because if you have electricity you know what has been happening around here the past two months. It’s hard to ignore, unless of course you have to. Perhaps Pop and Steve want to avoid an international incident now that they are wearing US colours. Still with their avowed disdain for government tyranny and support for personal freedom, do not be surprised if someone asks: “Coach Pop, do you find it patently absurd that pro-China protesters in the US are exercising a right to protest they are denied in China and thereby basically protesting their right not to be able to protest?”
The NBA is the most popular league in China with 150 million followers on social media, not to be confused with social activism which China is in the process of beating out of Hong Kong
“And coach Steve, now that all the artists in China – singers, actors, writers – have publicly taken an oath declaring they will never, ever say or sing or write anything negative about the Communist Party, can we still honestly call them artists? After all, isn’t art without freedom of expression merely propaganda?”
Should they feel emboldened and answer the questions, the rebuke will be swift. This is China’s domestic affair, keep politics out of this event! Unless of course they agree with Beijing’s heavy-handed ways, in which case please speak up.
Not much chance of that though, as both Pop and Steve are prominent voices in a league that NBA commissioner Adam Silver proudly declares is, “not afraid to lead on social justice”. Silver claims that social activism is ingrained in the NBA’s DNA and likes to cite one of the game’s all-time greats Bill Russell attending Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington in 1963 not long after being named MVP of the NBA All-Star game. “I think of that through line from Bill Russell right through to 2018 and LeBron James,” Silver said.
USA draw Turkey, Czech Republic and Japan in quest for third consecutive FIBA World Cup title
James is not only the game’s pre-eminent star; he is one of its most prominent activists as well. Ironically, the NBA is the most popular league in China with 150 million followers on social media, not to be confused with social activism which China is in the process of beating out of Hong Kong. Of course, that is not the bells of freedom the NBA hears in China, it’s the ringing of cash registers and while Silver would readily admit that tyranny know no borders, neither do profits. Still, every human right that is being bludgeoned in China right now is supposedly anathema to what the NBA stands for. Or is it? Pop, Steve – care to comment?
