NBA-China crisis reaches jersey names ahead of league restart
- League has offered players several ‘preapproved messages’ to wear instead of names at July 30 restart
- US senator Josh Hawley questions commissioner Adam Silver as to why these messages do not include China
“Each player shall have his surname affixed to the back of his game jersey in letters at least 2½" in height. Some exceptions to the front number height and surname may exist from time to time.” So reads the NBA rules when it comes to names on jerseys.
Now, as the NBA looks to resume from its extraordinary hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, is one of those times.
When the league tips off again at the end of the month several players will not sport their names across their shoulders.
Instead, they can opt for any one of 29 “preapproved messages” – which were initially suggested by the Players Association and agreed to by both parties – when the league resumes at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on July 30.
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They are: Black Lives Matter; Say Their Names; Vote; I Can’t Breathe; Justice; Peace; Equality; Freedom; Enough; Power to the People; Justice Now; Say Her Name; Sí Se Puede (Yes We Can); Liberation; See Us; Hear Us; Respect Us; Love Us; Listen; Listen to Us; Stand Up; Ally; Anti-Racist; I Am A Man; Speak Up; How Many More; Group Economics; Education Reform; and Mentor.
Several players have opted out with two of the NBA’s biggest stars, LeBron James and Joel Embiid, among them.
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“I actually didn’t go with a name on the back of my jersey,” James told the press last Saturday. “It was no disrespect to the list that was handed out to all the players. I commend anyone that decides to put something on the back of their jersey. It’s just something that didn’t really seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal.
“I would have loved to have a say-so on what would have went on the back of my jersey,” James continued. “I had a couple things in mind, but I wasn’t part of that process, which is OK. I’m absolutely OK with that … I don’t need to have something on the back of my jersey for people to understand my mission or know what I’m about and what I’m here to do.”
Mike Scott, a teammate of Embiid at the Philadelphia 76ers, spoke out against the list as it prevents the players from expressing their own opinions.
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The list of preapproved political statements has drawn criticism from all sides. Many of the players will not touch it, despite several making high profile appearances at the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the US following the death of George Floyd in police custody in June and many of them speaking out on social justice issues.
On the other side of the divide, Missouri senator Josh Hawley wrote to NBA commissioner Adam Silver to take issue with both the list of messages and the announcement that the NBA would resume with “Black Lives Matter” written on the court.
The Republican told Silver that the NBA had “crossed the line of sanctioning specific political messages” and wanted to know why the list did not feature messages such as “Back the Blue” or “Support Our Troops”.
Hawley also dragged Hong Kong into the issue because nowadays the NBA has become the favourite theatre for the ongoing conflict between China and the US, dating back to Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s support for Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters last October.
“If the NBA’s going to put these social justice statements on the back of uniforms, which is what they’re doing now, why is it that there’s nothing on there about, like, free Hong Kong or the Uygurs or anything that has to do with the billions of dollars the NBA makes in China?” the senator told US conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
There has been no indication that any NBA player asked for the option to display any message related to China on their jerseys.
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Hawley also responded to the decision by ESPN to suspend veteran NBA journalist Adrian Wojnarowski, who was disciplined for responding to the senator’s letter to Silver with an emailed “f*** you”. Hawley called for Wojnarowski to be reinstated, which was in line with players such as James tweeting “Free Woj”.
“And you see the response from the reporter, and now ESPN, and say oh, you know, well, the reporter, we’ll take care of that. We’ll silence him. But they don’t want to address the core issue, which is the NBA’s relationship with China. ESPN has a slice of that pie.
“This is big-time money for the NBA and I think we do deserve to know exactly what they’re making,” Hawley said in the interview, also calling for Silver to be subpoenaed. “And we deserve to have them explain to us why they won’t stand up to this authoritarian regime.”
Social media posts showed customers had tried to use the custom jersey name option to buy NBA uniforms with “Free Hong Kong” on the back but were denied. This in turn led to customers trying to sneak other messages past the NBA store and others accusing them of self-censorship.
“The phrase was inadvertently prohibited on our league online store sites and has now been fixed,” Fanatics, who run the NBA store, later said in a statement. “Fans who wish to customize it, so long as the text meets the 12-character limit, are able to do so.”
You can bet your shirt that while Republicans can use the NBA as a way to score points on China this issue is not going to go away.
