China isn't happy with the NBA: here's why

Last week there was rather innocent tweet sent out by the Houston Rocket general manager, Daryl Morey showing his support for the pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong. It was soon met with some backlash from the Chinese government. The owner of the Rockets, Tilman Fertitta, tried to ease things over by distancing Morey from the team by basically saying that the tweet were the beliefs of Morey and were in no way the beliefs of the entire organization. It seemed as it was a little too late because although Morey wasn’t punished by the NBA, China, who is one of the league’s biggest supporters stopped airing Rockets games and cancelled events. Click here for a video recap.

Then this morning at an NBA press conference,CNN reporter, Christina Macfarlane, asked James Harden and Russel Westbrook of the Houston Rockets if they would refrain from speaking out on social justice issues after the whole ordeal with China. Macfarlane couldn't even get the question out before she was shut down by an unidentified spokesperson saying Harden and Westbrook will only be answering basketball questions. 

Of course, this was then met by a storm of people voicing their opinions on twitter, the majority of them saying that this is censorship and I agree, to an extent. Yes, this is censorship, Harden and Westbrook didn’t even get a word out before this woman cut them off. It makes me think even more about the fact that we forget the NBA is a business before anything else and all businesses like doing is making money. China happens to be one of the biggest supporters of the league so if something is said that can jeopardize that relationship then of course the league will try and do anything the keep them and China on good terms.  

NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, did come out and say that the NBA isn't putting itself in the position to censor players but I’m not buying it. The apology from Harden seemed like it was forced. I’m eager to see what more will come from this story 

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