Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai weighs in on Houston Rockets storm while James Harden says team ‘loves China’

The governor of one of the 30 NBA teams says, as a Chinese and having spent a good part of his professional life in China, he feels the need to speak up

NBA issues statement regretting remarks as Harden and teammate Russell Westbrook insist that team loves playing in China

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Joe Tsai has weighed in on the Houston Rockets Twitter storm. Photo: slamonline.com

Published: 3:36pm, 7 Oct 2019Updated: 1:10pm, 8 Oct 2019

The owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team, Joe Tsai, has weighed into the controversy ignited by Houston Rockets general manger Daryl Morey as he sought to explain the historical context of why Chinese basketball fans were upset with the general manager’s now-deleted tweet about Hong Kong protesters.

He wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that fans, like the rest of China’s 1.4 billion citizens, viewed territorial integrity and sovereignty as “non-negotiable” issues.

Morey created a storm when posting a tweet with an image saying “fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong”. The post was deleted and Morey backtracked, saying he now had more opportunity “to hear and consider other perspectives” and he “did not intend to cause any offence to Rockets fans and friends in China”.

One of the team’s star players, James Harden, also apologised on behalf of the Rockets, saying they loved playing in China.

But Tsai, who bought the Nets outright in a US$2.35 billion deal in September, said as a governor of one of the 30 NBA teams, and a Chinese who had spent a good part of his professional life in China, he needed to speak up. In his capacity as the owner of Brooklyn Nets, Tsai is also a governor of the NBA board.

Joe Tsai completed his takeover of the Brooklyn Nets in September. Photo: Handout

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