Rockets owner: Daryl Morey does NOT speak for the Rockets

[BallerTalk]

We understand that running your country like a dictatorship in certain aspects, trying to recreate 1984 with social credit systems being installed, police beating unarmed people, lack of basic freedoms , controlling who can and can't have kids etc is inhumane and a regression for the entire world.

Irony.

[homecourtloss]

China is putting Uighurs through another holocaust. Nba shouldn't be aligned with such entities.

Not enough in the news about this. There’s some coverage of Hong Kong, but nothing about these Chinese Muslims who are put in re-education camps, disappear, are forced to divorce their wives, separated from their children. It’s disgusting that the NBA even does business with China. Replace these Chinese Muslims with another group people care more about for whatever reasons and there’d be an outcry for boycotts.

[HeartBreakKid]

China is putting Uighurs through another holocaust. Nba shouldn't be aligned with such entities.

Not enough in the news about this. There’s some coverage of Hong Kong, but nothing about these Chinese Muslims who are put in re-education camps, disappear, are forced to divorce their wives, separated from their children. It’s disgusting that the NBA even does business with China. Replace these Chinese Muslims with another group people care more about for whatever reasons and there’d be an outcry for boycotts.

China does do this with other groups

[clyde21]

Why he says our presence in tokyo? he thinks tokyo is in china or that asia is just china? japan
hates china so they likely would want the worst for china.
Hong Kong isn't fighting for freedom or anything like that, they just want to keep their special status in china and don't want to be a normal part of china. If a state in the united states would want to be special or even independent people would say the same? of course no, it's just nationalism and hypocrisy.[/quote]

First off this exist in USA. What do you think Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands etc are?

Second, Hong Kong is entitled to not be treated like the rest of China, as it is part of their deal with going back to China. They are supposed to have self governance, and some feel China is breaching that - hence the protests.

no, they are protesting against extradition...this whole thing started because a Hong Kong man murdered and burned the body of his gf in Taiwan, China wanted his trial in Taiwan or Mainland China, so they were trying to change the laws to be able to extradite him...it has nothing to do with 'self-governance'...if a Puerto Rican man commits murder in the US and then goes back to Puerto Rico, he gets extradited back to the US for trial. that's how it works.

[clyde21]

China is putting Uighurs through another holocaust. Nba shouldn't be aligned with such entities.

Not enough in the news about this. There’s some coverage of Hong Kong, but nothing about these Chinese Muslims who are put in re-education camps, disappear, are forced to divorce their wives, separated from their children. It’s disgusting that the NBA even does business with China. Replace these Chinese Muslims with another group people care more about for whatever reasons and there’d be an outcry for boycotts.

China does do this with other groups

huh? which other group is China currently putting in gulags, concentration and re-education camps?

[MP]

The situation in Hong Kong is a lot more intense/ severe than what most people in other countries think.

China has been, and am still stepping away from interfering with the one country 2 system principle as much as they can ( as a Hong Kong resident for over 20 years, I applaud them for that), as much as the rioters in Hong Kong has elevated the violence to a degree that was unheard of in the modern Hong Kong era.
Despicable media has been covering up the violence by the so called freedom fighters and exaggerated the force used by the police in an unspeakable manner (as an example, the recent article by New York Times had edited the footage of the police shooting at a rioter incident to make the policeman who opened fire seemed to be in the wrong, I am actual very impressed by the Hong Kong police since that was the first direct shot at a rioter in a devastating riot that has been on going for 4 months)

Last night, rioters had burned down a bank, robbed multiple shops and burned down the trains in the subway.

Us, who live in Hong Kong only wish the China government will unleash the army to stop this mess.

So for people who are still standing with Hong Kong, I sincerely wish you can look at all sides/ angles, and would stop blindly siding with the rioters, who are disturbing the peace of Hong Kong in the name of “freedom”.

PS: the guy in the white shirt is a off duty cop who was attacked by the mob and was thrown a Molotov cocktail.

A very sad Hong Kong resident.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it's hilarious how Americans actually think these Hong Kong protests are legit...they're literally being stoked by Western agents, protestors literally had american flags instead of Hong Kong flags LOL...half of the protestors that were interviewed didn't even **** know what they're protesting...

but you'll hear more about that conjured up BS than China literally putting millions of Uyghers in gulags AS WE SPEAK.

What you said about Hong Kong protesters cannot get more wrong than this. Hong Kong people hate their official Hong Kong flag, which was designed by mainland China. They waved American flags because US may be the only country which can stand against the mighty power China authoritarian regime.

Western agents? Maybe there are some, and I hope there will be more to help. Blaming other countries for intervening any wrongdoing among its own citizens is a very common tactic by mainland China.

I saw a lot of the interviews from the protestors, and I can understand their asks and requests. What China has done to Uyghurs is beyond tragic, and as citizens of the free world we should pay a lot of attention to them, but that doesn't mean what Hong Kong is happening right now is less devil. Indeed, if Hong Kong is not a highly developed city with presence of western interest, China may already apply the same tactics to both Uyghurs and Hong Kong.

[HeartBreakKid]

Why he says our presence in tokyo? he thinks tokyo is in china or that asia is just china? japan
hates china so they likely would want the worst for china.
Hong Kong isn't fighting for freedom or anything like that, they just want to keep their special status in china and don't want to be a normal part of china. If a state in the united states would want to be special or even independent people would say the same? of course no, it's just nationalism and hypocrisy.[/quote]

First off this exist in USA. What do you think Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands etc are?

Second, Hong Kong is entitled to not be treated like the rest of China, as it is part of their deal with going back to China. They are supposed to have self governance, and some feel China is breaching that - hence the protests.

no, they are protesting against extradition..this whole thing started because a Hong Kong man murdered and burned the body of his gf in Taiwan, China wanted his trial in Taiwan or Mainland China, so they were trying to change the laws to be able to extradite him..

.it has nothing to do with 'self-governance'...if a Puerto Rican man commits murder in the US and then goes back to Puerto Rico, he gets extradited back to the US for trial. that's how it works.

Nothing you said contradicted my point. The post said that if a STATE wanted to be treated differently and Americans complained then it would be hypocrisy - Hong Kong is not the equivalent of a US State. His criticism of the situation makes no sense. He is also talking as if there are parts in the US that are treated differently - yes...there are. Yes, Puerto Rico is treated differently from California, that is an objective truth. USA territories with different degrees of a autonomous, if they do something that the natives feel like is breaching it then the natives will likely say something about it.

I did not say that the protest in Hong Kong was not about extradition. WHY do you think Hong Kongers care that people can be extradited to Mainland China instead of being trialed? Obviously there is fear that it can be used to send HKers the government does not like into China.

Also, this is all still related to self governance. As it highlights that Hong Kongers do not have the rights to elect their head of state - and their head of state is largely just a croney put in by Beijing. They are absolutely related, I have no idea how anyone can think these things exist in a vacuum.

Based on what you've read you seem to think no one in Hong Kong cares about this, and this is a white person problem. It is not a "fake" protest, I have no idea how anyone can go to Hong Kong and actually think that. It is more real than the Umbrella Revolution was. Because the Western Media finds HKers more sympathetic than Turks (the average non-Chinese person does not know what Xinjiang is, so naturally it will not be in the media, HK has more foreign presence) you seem to think it is not a real issue, which is bizarre quite frankly.


I know this doesn't make me an expert on the subject, but I did used to live in HK - was there in HK right before the protest, and live in Taiwan. Regardless of what USA is putting on their news channels, this is not some thing USA is making up. I find it strange that there are people who think that because other places in China have it worse that Hong Kongers do not have a right to complain.

Hey, American blacks shouldn't complain because Native Americans got it worse and their people get openly raped in the Dakotas, no one talks about these things in the media therefore Black-White problems in USA is a non issue or Police vs Blacks is a non-racial issue or something. That's what it is starting to sound like to me from reading this thread.

[HeartBreakKid]

Not enough in the news about this. There’s some coverage of Hong Kong, but nothing about these Chinese Muslims who are put in re-education camps, disappear, are forced to divorce their wives, separated from their children. It’s disgusting that the NBA even does business with China. Replace these Chinese Muslims with another group people care more about for whatever reasons and there’d be an outcry for boycotts.

China does do this with other groups

huh? which other group is China currently putting in gulags, concentration and re-education camps?

Tibet...

Honestly, it seems like you are some guy who read about the Middle East and then stumbled that Chinese has Muslims by accident - and just found out about the Xinjiang crisis after going through a few wikipedia portals.

There are many smaller ethnic groups in China that go through re-education. Virtually every non-Han chinese group in China goes through this process. Many ethnic groups in China have already had their cultures erased through "assimilation".

[andyhop]

The most interesting thing about this is how a smart guy like Morey didn't see what a dumb idea it would be to piss off one of his employers target customer audiences

[HeartBreakKid]

Also, I know people like to complain because HK is the social media darling or what ever - but if you really do care about Xinjiang and Tibet the protest in HK spread awareness about those places. This is objectively evident based on google as there are more articles now spreading the news about concentration camps in the mainland. Stop trying to turn real problems into some strange popularity contest.

[MP]

Why he says our presence in tokyo? he thinks tokyo is in china or that asia is just china? japan
hates china so they likely would want the worst for china.
Hong Kong isn't fighting for freedom or anything like that, they just want to keep their special status in china and don't want to be a normal part of china. If a state in the united states would want to be special or even independent people would say the same? of course no, it's just nationalism and hypocrisy.[/quote]

First off this exist in USA. What do you think Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands etc are?

Second, Hong Kong is entitled to not be treated like the rest of China, as it is part of their deal with going back to China. They are supposed to have self governance, and some feel China is breaching that - hence the protests.

no, they are protesting against extradition...this whole thing started because a Hong Kong man murdered and burned the body of his gf in Taiwan, China wanted his trial in Taiwan or Mainland China, so they were trying to change the laws to be able to extradite him...it has nothing to do with 'self-governance'...if a Puerto Rican man commits murder in the US and then goes back to Puerto Rico, he gets extradited back to the US for trial. that's how it works.

Taiwan (a sovereign nation on its own, but let's not go into there first) has clearly said that they are not going to take the murder through this type of extradition. There are at least 2 other means to extradite the murder, but Hong Kong government was trying to open the pandora box to force this bill to go through so that there is a loophole of the law to to send any other back to China (a totally different juridical system). Not a lot of people in Hong Kong, even in different political views, have much faith in China's so called "rule of law" commitment

[spacemonkey]

It's interesting how much misinformation there is about the Hong Kong protests. The misinformation is serving the political agendas of those spreading it, and many are unwittingly parroting it. Let's take quick look:

1. HK protestors are not secessionists or separatists - nowhere is independence from China on their list of demands. There are *some* who are pro-independence, but they are a scant few, and the overwhelming majority of the protestors you see on the news do not agree with their views.

2. Protestors waved the US flags for the specific purpose of gaining international attention, pissing off China and it's wumaos (the 50c brigade the Chinese government hires to bomb comment sections internet-wide with pro-China rhetoric). It was to increase awareness. At the most recent protests, HK protestors have waved flags of multiple nations - like, 10+. The idea of waving the US flag was to try and take advantage of the US-China trade war, and make Hong Kong a sticking point.

Of course, Trump is a businessman first and foremost, and so it was probably a forlorn hope.

3. Hong Kong protestors are fighting for their 5 demands - one of which has been granted, the extradition law being repealed. The other demands include the current Chief Executive resigning, an independent commission to investigate the rampant police brutality and abuse of power, the exoneration of those arrested and charged with 'rioting' when merely exercising their right to assemble (unless you believe the thousands that have been arrested were all committing acts of rioting), and universal suffrage by breaking down the current legislature and allowing for free elections of representatives.

(Right now, the Hong Kong legislature is dominated by rich, pro-Beijing business interests, and is designed that way. If you are a citizen in Hong Kong, you literally only get to vote for someone who gets to 'vote' for the C.E, which Beijing actually simply vets and implements. Simply put, the people are not properly represented. You, as an ordinary citizen, don't even have "1 vote" - you have a fraction of 1.)

4. Hong Kong is not simply a 'state' of China - as a former British colony, it has a unique cultural heritage, and operates on free market ideology, as well as rule of law. This is very different from China which is heavily-regulated state-sponsored-capitalism wrapped up in a faux-communist rhetoric, with rampant censorship in order to control it's populace, the one and only thing the Chinese government are afraid of.

Rule of Law is important when absorbing the context of the extradition law and the Hong Kong protests - let's dive into it:

The extradition law would allow for a loophole for China to drum up any charge, provide Prima Facie evidence (that is, evidence that is 'reasonable' but cannot be argued against prior to extradition), and then request for extradition. The courts in Hong Kong would have some, but in actuality very little power to fight this.

As many should know, China's judicial system is famously corrupt, acting as nothing but a system by which the CCP can get what it wants done. The conviction rate is ridiculously high, and many methods of ranking global judicial systems rank China as third-world-esque.

Now, we can start to see why HK people had such a big issue with this: being extradited to face a trial in a country where the court only serves the establishment is, how should we put it, less than ideal. In contrast, Hong Kong's judicial system is regarded as one of the best globally, impartial, and with procedure that is appropriate.

Moving toward the present, since that flashpoint of legislation was attempted to be pushed through, protestors gathered in historic numbers -- it is laughable to think that anybody has 'tricked', 'bought', 'stoked', or 'used' nearly 2 million people, or a quarter of Hong Kong's entire population, to take to the streets. Just think about the cost and logistics there for a minute -- I know we're in a re-emergence of a conspiracy-theory age like it's the early 90s all over again, but think about it for just one moment. And that's not even touching on the arrogance of removing all the agency of an enormous number of people.

Beyond that, these protests represent something else in Hong Kong -- a deep-seeded unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the hyper-capitalist system. The gini coefficient for Hong Kong ranks it as one of the most unequal places on earth, and Hong Kong regularly tops the charts for most expensive city to live in. Don't be mistaken - the vast majority are very poor, and have no possible way of leaving the city.

Compound that with a government that has, with increasing frequency, catered to Chinese political and business interests, and ceased representing the people they claim to govern, and you've got a tremendous amount of anger, resentment, and it's coming to a boiling point.

The poster, a 'resident' (let me guess, privileged expat?) that earlier said that China hasn't encroached on the One-Country-Two-Systems Sino-British Joint Declaration is mistaken, simply put. It's not out-and-out obvious, but read between the lines, and you'll see it.

Remember that in 2014, there were the Occupy Central / Umbrella Revolution movements -- their goal was universal suffrage.

What Hong Kong people are fighting for, ultimately, is not secession or independence, but the right to elect their own leaders, something *anybody* from the West should at least be, in theory, sympathetic to.

What we are seeing today is an extension of that 2014 movement, spurred on by a piece of horribly unpopular legislation that the government tried to sneak through on the back of a scumbag murderer, that the government saw, at China's bidding no doubt, a way they could side-load a new law.

Now the Chief Executive of Hong Kong has enacted an emergency ordinance that allows the government to create laws and bypass the legislature - a dangerous precedent, indeed. As of now, Hong Kong has a mask ban, meaning you cannot wear even a surgical mask if you have a cold, while being with a group of people, or you can be charged and prosecuted with a criminal offense.

This all on the heels of the Chief Executive having a sit-down "dialogue" with protestors - another classic case of talking out of both sides of her mouth, and placating the masses before trying something hugely unpopular.

There is a reason Hong Kongers are angry, and there is a reason they are fighting for something. Yes, not everybody agrees - and nobody really knows where the silent majority lie.

But the Chief Executives polling has nose-dived over the last 4 months, so I think it's fairly certain we can all agree on one thing: That nobody in Hong Kong is satisfied with their government.

[mixerball]

when the money is threatened they are right even though they are wrong. when the money is threatened freedom doesnt matter.

[WarriorGM]

Accepting Chinese money comes at a price. If the NBA wasn't so eager to solicit it this wouldn't be an issue but since they have it is. A warning/reminder for everyone.

[Dirk]

Also, I know people like to complain because HK is the social media darling or what ever - but if you really do care about Xinjiang and Tibet the protest in HK spread awareness about those places. This is objectively evident based on google as there are more articles now spreading the news about concentration camps in the mainland. Stop trying to turn real problems into some strange popularity contest.

[Tiny ball]

I agree with his stance but it's not worth it for the NBA to get involved in Chinese politics

This is how atrocities happen.

Yep. Honestly if Morey got fired for this it would be one hell of an honorable hill to die on. He earns massive points in my book as a human being and politically I don't even align with the guy (He's a far left Lib, I'm a centrist conservative). My guess is only dictators and supporters of the Chinese government condone what's happening.

Has it not come out us government is behind all this. The people on Hong Kong have it good. Now those Muslims all that sounds terrible.

[taikibansei]

Morey just got himself in titanic troubles. There will be pressure to axe Morey. Rockets is the most Chinese oriented team in the league with close ties to Chinese basketball. Fetitta is retail billionaire and fully understands that it's not wise to take any stance on politics.

Morey is going to 99% come out with a forced apology. Or else he is going to get fired. There is no other way to resolve this issue.

And why do Americans feel the need to meddle in the affairs of foreign countries?

How will you feel if China started funding Black Lives Matter? The Klan? Southern Separatist/Nationalist movements?

Morey isn't funding anything. He gave his opinion. Which affects NOTHING in reality... other than the pockets of those that already have billions.

You are missing the point. A sizable portion of the American left would like to stand with the separatist in Hong Kong by offering them public financial support. Morey echoed those sentiments, which is wholly inappropriate for any public sports organization to espouse unless they are willing to completely abandon the Chinese market.

Literal direct intervention in the politics and internal workings of a sovereign foreign country. It is literally a **** insane train of thought.

Um, a lot of irony in this post, particularly given a certain recent phone call, several recent tweets and a press conference announcement from a certain POTUS.

[taikibansei]

I personally am 100% for athletes and GMs using their public visibility and status as a platform to advocate change--even change I don't necessarily agree with. However, in this particular case, I can agree with the Rockets' owner too. Since Yao, the Rockets have had a special, and often lucrative, mutual relationship with mainland China, one that's been great for the team (and the NBA as a whole as well). As an employee of this team, the GM has no business saying anything unilaterally that would jeopardize this relationship. If Morey wants to take a stand against China, he is free to quit the team in protest and go to one of the many other teams that don't have such a relationship...and then say whatever he wants.

[Johnny Bball]

This is how atrocities happen.

Yep. Honestly if Morey got fired for this it would be one hell of an honorable hill to die on. He earns massive points in my book as a human being and politically I don't even align with the guy (He's a far left Lib, I'm a centrist conservative). My guess is only dictators and supporters of the Chinese government condone what's happening.

Has it not come out us government is behind all this. The people on Hong Kong have it good. Now those Muslims all that sounds terrible.

What the ****.

[Dr Spaceman]

Anybody who calls America the most freedom and liberty country on earth is delusional in the year 2019. Have you seen the freedom and liberty that exists in other 1st world countries? More than America.

How so?

Well one of the most important duties that a country has towards its citizens is to keep them safe and healthy. Not only is America the most dangerous first world country by far (and it's not even close), it also does not have universal healthcare despite clearly having enough tax revenue to do so. I mean this is a very low bar and America fails at it.

This plus most Americans are in severe debt by the time they turn 22 and will owe that money for a significant portion of their lives. Financial liberty is just a dream for a lot of Americans while Europeans generally graduate with 0 debt and never have to worry about a healthcare bill in their lives.