The NBA and China

[Heisenberg]

This could turn out to be a bigger disaster for the NBA than kneeling was for the NFL (and make no mistake, kneeling damaged the NFL)

Last night at a game in Philadelphia, a fan was thrown out of the game for having a "Free Hong Kong" sign.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nba-fan-booted-over-hong-kong-support-chinese-money-trumps-free-speech

This could easily turn into dozens of fans, if not many dozens of fans, bringing Pro-Hong Kong, anti-China signs.  Does the NBA want to act like their Chinese partners are physically remove them?  If not, they will never get back on Chinese TV and lose a ton of revenue.

And this from Slate today ...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/xinjiang-the-nba-is-running-a-training-camp-in-the-middle-of-one-of-the-worlds-worst-humanitarian-atrocities.html

Yes, the Chinese have concentration camps, complete with organ harvesting.  This is too uncomfortable to discuss.

Instead, let's praise Lebron for calling Trump Hitler while he is in China TODAY participating in workouts in the same town these atrocities are happening in. 

You're only Hitler if you don't pay LeBron.  But if you pay LeBron, go ahead and harvest those livers from the estimated 1.2 million concentration camp prisoners (mostly Muslim) because drunk party leaders pickled their livers and need new ones.

-----------------

Also this ...


South park mocked the Chinese in their latest episode, including saying President Xi looks like Winnie the Pooh.

Chinese Censors banned the show in China.

https://twitter.com/SouthPark/status/1179787693871521792?s=20

And the creators of South Park issued an apology on Twitter that mocks the NBA and much as it takes a shot at the Chinese.

Well done!

[wadesworld]

(It will be interesting to see if the mods close this thread)

This could turn out to be a bigger disaster for the NBA than kneeling was for the NFL (and make no mistake, kneeling damaged the NFL)

Last night at a game in Philadelphia, a fan was thrown out of the game for having a "Free Hong Kong" sign.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nba-fan-booted-over-hong-kong-support-chinese-money-trumps-free-speech

This could easily turn into dozens of fans, if not many dozens of fans, bringing Pro-Hong Kong signs, anti-China signs.  Does the NBA want to act like their Chinese partners are physically remove them?  If not, they will never get back on Chinese TV and lose a ton of revenue.

And this from Slate today ...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/xinjiang-the-nba-is-running-a-training-camp-in-the-middle-of-one-of-the-worlds-worst-humanitarian-atrocities.html

Yes, the Chinese have concentration camps, complete with organ harvesting.  This is too uncomfortable to discuss.

Instead, let's praise Lebron for calling Trump Hitler while he is in China TODAY participating in workouts in the same town these atrocities are happening in. 

You're only Hitler if you don't pay LeBron.  But if you pay LeBron, go ahead and harvest those livers from the estimated 1.2 million concentration camp prisoners (mostly Muslim) because drunk party leaders pickled their livers and need new ones.

-----------------

Also this ...


South park mocked the Chinese in their latest episode, including saying President Xi looks like Winnie the Pooh.

Chinese Censors banned the show in China.

https://twitter.com/SouthPark/status/1179787693871521792?s=20

And the creators of South Park issued an apology on Twitter that mocks the NBA and much as it takes a shot at the Chinese.

Well done!

That is a great way to start off a thread. It was so good that I read the first sentence and skipped the rest.

[Heisenberg]

That is a great way to start off a thread. It was so good that I read the first sentence and skipped the rest.

Coming form you is a great endorsement to read the entire thing.

[Galway Eagle]

Could've been interesting to discuss had you not thrown in partisan snippets that took away from the issue at hand.
Sad.

[Jockey]

So ... speaking up for freedom in now a controversial stance?


Money trumps EVERYTHING.

[Pakuni]

Interesting that the same guy who believed the NFL should have banned kneeling players to preserve its bottom line is mad at the NBA for cowtowing to China to preserve its bottom line.

[wadesworld]

Interesting that the same guy who believed the NFL should have banned kneeling players to preserve its bottom line is mad at the NBA for cowtowing to China to preserve its bottom line.

Lol.

[Heisenberg]

Interesting that the same guy who believed the NFL should have banned kneeling players to preserve its bottom line is mad at the NBA for cowtowing to China to preserve its bottom line.

Lol.

Interesting how these guys can twist concentration camps, murder, and human organ harvesting into something they think gives them the moral high ground.

Very sad

[Heisenberg]

Bloomberg - One Tweet Could Cost NBA Billions of Dollars in China
The NBA's Houston Rockets tweeted an image of a slogan supporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters on Friday. The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before causing a huge backlash in China. The league says 800 million people in China watch the games. Bloomberg's Janet Paskin appears on "Bloomberg Markets." (Source: Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-10-07/one-tweet-could-cost-nba-billions-of-dollars-in-china-video

WE LOVE YOU CHINA - James Harden (third largest selling jersey in China)

[tower912]

Yes, China cedes the moral high ground.    See:   all things you mentioned plus Hong Kong.       They have been pressuring so many for so many years.    Whether or not to recognize Taiwan.    Constantly commenting on anything that is critical of them.     The fact that they would lose their crap over one NBA GM's tweet speaks volumes.    And here we are.    Options:   Give in to their pressure, make money.     Embrace free speech and condemn their actions, lose money.     The eternal conundrum, principle or principal.   

[wadesworld]

Interesting how these guys can twist concentration camps, murder, and human organ harvesting into something they think gives them the moral high ground.

Very sad

Somebody's lacking attention lately.  Lol.

[Pakuni]

Interesting how these guys can twist concentration camps, murder, and human organ harvesting into something they think gives them the moral high ground.

Very sad

Not sure what moral high ground has to do with anything here. I'm just pointing out your willingness to embrace contradictory positions as long as they allow you to bash black athletes.

[jesmu84]

Apple removed Taiwan flag emoji resulting from Chinese pressure.

[MU82]

Apple stock also is up more than 150% since Heisy Smuggles III said to avoid it at all costs.

IBTL

[SaveOD238]

The eternal conundrum, principle or principal.   

In America, principal always wins.  That goes right back to the beginning.  The Founding Fathers used Enlightenment ideas, but only to justify being pissed off about taxation.  Thomas Jefferson hated slavery but wouldn't free his own slaves because it would financially ruin him.

Looks like the NBA is taking a page from the same book.

[Heisenberg]

Not sure what moral high ground has to do with anything here. I'm just pointing out your willingness to embrace contradictory positions as long as they allow you to bash black athletes.

You are a disgusting person.

[Heisenberg]

Jason Whitlock chimes in

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6093294902001/#sp=show-clips

WHITLOCK: The shoe companies, Nike, Adidas, they run American basketball from the high school level all the way to the pros and the shoe companies are dependent on the China market and that's where all of this is coming from.

You see NBA players constantly over the summer during their off-season running to China to do the bidding of their shoe companies and to sell their shoes in the China market.

And so the NBA is really being exposed as not nearly as much of American business as it is a global business with China perhaps having more influence over it than even America.

WHITLOCK: They're doing the bidding of the shoe companies demonizing us and our culture and dramatically changing our culture because these athletes are young.

They don't understand how they're being used and played to promote a communist, a Marxist agenda. They have no idea that their actions and a lot of the things they're promoting, this victim mentality, and all the identity politics and, "Oh everything in America's racist," all of that. It's all a scam by the shoe companies. "Look how socially aware we are, look how we fight against injustice."

No. You're actually doing a marketing ploy to pretend you have a social conscience and you're actually doing the bidding of the communist regime in China.

[Pakuni]

You are a disgusting person.

Got a bit close to the bone, I guess.

[The Sultan]

The NBA is in a tough place.  I think the biggest problem is not that they are playing there, although that is concerning.  The biggest problem is how they are kowtowing to them.  If you aren't going to allow fans to hold up signs of protest, I think you've gone too far to suck up to a market.

[Silkk the Shaka]

Interesting that the same guy who believed the NFL should have banned kneeling players to preserve its bottom line is mad at the NBA for cowtowing to China to preserve its bottom line.

Legit LOL

[ZiggysFryBoy]

What if a player kneeled during the Chinese national anthem?

 

[Cheeks]

What'll if a college basketball team shoplifted a bunch of stuff...if only they were paid for their likeness they would never have shoplifted.

[MU82]

Ditto Steve Kerr that mouths off on anything/everything Woke.  But now he is silent and has to "educate himself" on the issues.  When has an understanding of what he is saying ever stopped him before? A total POS

You know nothing about Steve Kerr and what kind of person he is.

One thing he isn't is "a total POS."

You sure you weren't looking in the mirror when you typed that, Smuggles?

[Heisenberg]

Apple stock also is up more than 150% since Heisy Smuggles III said to avoid it at all costs.

IBTL

Since you brought up Apple.  An organization over-run with Woke-ness and complains bitterly about police tactics in the US.

But again, when confronted with something about a million times worse, the Chinese government, they completely cave to the almighty dollar

Save your sanctimonious talk Mr. Cook ....

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20907228/apple-quartz-app-store-china-removal-hong-kong-protests-censorship
News organization Quartz tells The Verge that Apple has removed its mobile app from the Chinese version of its App Store after complaints from the Chinese government. According to Quartz, this is due to the publication's ongoing coverage of the Hong Kong protests, and the company says its entire website has also been blocked from being accessed in mainland China.

(What would Apple's response be to American police if they asked for something similar?)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/technology/apple-hong-kong-app.html
Apple removed an app on Wednesday that enabled protesters in Hong Kong to track police, a day after facing intense criticism from Chinese state media for it, plunging the technology giant deeper into the increasingly politicized atmosphere in China.

Apple said it was removing the app, called HKmap.live, from its iPhone App Store just days after approving it because authorities in Hong Kong said protesters were using it to attack police there.

A day earlier, People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published an editorial that accused Apple of aiding "rioters" in Hong Kong. "Letting poisonous software have its way is a betrayal of the Chinese people's feelings," said the article, which was written under a pseudonym, "Calming the Waves."

[The Sultan]

300+ NBA players.  What if one, or a few, want to wear "free HK" socks.  Is the NBA going to suspend them? Do they really want to go there?  And what about the hundreds of millions they get from China?  The Chinese will not stand for it.


---------

Bigger picture.  The NBA strutted around like a peacock for taking the all-star game out of Charlotte because of a transgender bathroom bill.

But now they are trying to ignore massive human rights abuses in China so they can continue to take their money.

Adam Silver is the biggest hypocrite on the planet.  He forfeits any moral high ground he thinks the NBA has. 

Ditto Steve Kerr that mouths off on anything/everything Woke.  But now he is silent and has to "educate himself" on the issues.  When has an understanding of what he is saying ever stopped him before? A total POS

The NBA ... They will not go to the White House, but they will go to happily go to a country that murders political prisoners.

Yeah this is bullsh*t.

Just because someone doesn't speak out every time injustice exists doesn't mean they are hypocrites for pointing out when it does.

Do I think the NBA should do more wrt China?  Yes. But that doesn't mean they should be faulted for standing up to injustice previously.