NBA teams close doors in China as Daryl Morey tweet firestorm continues and fans show little sympathy

Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets call off their open practices as fan day cancelled and vendors pull out
Fans support the decision to pull the TV plug on NBA preseason games in Shanghai and Shenzhen

NBA (National Basketball Association)

Patrick Blennerhassett

Published: 10:16am, 9 Oct 2019

Why you can trust SCMP

The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets called off their open practices in Shanghai on Wednesday, moving them behind closed doors, as the fallout from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's now-deleted pro-Hong Kong protest tweet continues.

For the second time in as many days, a planned NBA event in Shanghai was disrupted at the last minute. On Tuesday, it was a NBA Cares event at a school in Shanghai which NBA China confirmed later in the day was pulled by the Chinese government, and Wednesday both the Lakers and Nets called off their open practices, which would have been open to fans and media.

Once again no information or explanation was given for the cancellation. The two teams are scheduled to play on Thursday night at the Mercedes-Benz Arena before a game in Shenzhen Saturday.

An NBA China representative said practice is still going on for teams, however. The representative also confirmed reports that some vendors have pulled out of planned events.

A “Fan Day” event with the Nets scheduled on Wednesday has also been cancelled. The Shanghai Sports Federation released a statement confirming that it was because of the “inappropriate comments” by Silver and Morey.

Some fans had made their feelings on the ongoing saga clear during the Nets and Lakers visit to Shanghai.

Chinese fans waiting outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pudong district hoping to catch a glimpse of an NBA star were reluctant to talk to media, but when they did it was unequivocal backing for the central government.

The Chinese government is often sensitive to perceived political attacks from outside sources, also recently banning the American cartoon satire show South Park , which made fun of China and its president Xi Jinping.

State broadcaster CCTV and the government-run Chinese Basketball Association have been among the bodies to speak out against both the Rockets and NBA.

Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey has caused controversy with his tweet supporting the Hong Kong protests. Photo: AP

Chen Weixue, one of the fans waiting outside the hotel for an autograph on Tuesday, was sporting a Brooklyn Nets Kyrie Irving haircut with the star's name shaved and coloured into his head. He was one of about two dozen fans waiting for the Nets to return from a community event to which media were not invited.

“It was a childish thing to say,” said Chen through a translator about Morey's tweet, originally posted last Friday and indicating his support for the protest movement in Hong Kong. “I am really surprised [Morey] would upset the largest overseas market like that.”

The controversy hit a fever pitch on Tuesday as the Chinese government cancelled a planned event just hours before the Nets were supposed to head to the New World Experimental Primary School in Shanghai for a court refurbishment ceremony.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Photo: AFP

It wasn't until later in the day that representatives from NBA China confirmed it was the government that pulled the plug on the event and not the NBA or the Nets.

This was followed by an announcement that CCTV had pulled its NBA China Games broadcasting in response to NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s support for Morey's right to free speech.

In an initial statement, Silver said he both supported Morey’s right to freedom of expression along with the right to reply of Nets owner Joe Tsai, who wrote an open letter on Facebook describing the Hong Kong protests as a “third-rail issue” in China.

Chen, who said the first basketball game he ever watched was a Rockets game in 2008 while Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming was still playing for the team, said he had no issue with CCTV pulling the games.

“I will support the country's decision,” he said. Yao retired from the NBA in 2011 due to injuries and is now the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, which also released a statement condemning Morey’s original tweet.

The NBA has stated that some 500 million Chinese people watched at least one NBA game last season and up to 300 million play the game within the country.

Out on courts in Shanghai, other players echoed Yao’s sentiment. Song Yanliang, who was shooting hoops at a court in Jing’an district, said he is a Lakers fan and heard about the news recently.

“Hong Kong is part of China so it is bad that the Rockets are saying what they said,” Song said.

At another court nearby, Song Yunsheng, who has been a Lakers fan since 2013 and was sporting a black LeBron James jersey, said he was “disappointed” by Moray's tweet.

“It is insulting to Chinese people,” he said. “I would not have any objection if they did not show any of the games any more, I would just use a VPN to check and see if the Lakers won or not.”

Silver on Tuesday issued a second statement on the controversy, once again backing freedom of speech.

“It is inevitable the people around the world – including from America and China – will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences,” he said.

“The NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way.”

An NBA billboard in Shanghai near the Ritz-Carlton where the NBA players are staying. Photo: Patrick Blennerhassett

Silver confirmed to media that he would arrive in Shanghai on Wednesday after travelling from Tokyo where the Rockets played the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.

Post