China and the NBA/day 11/ Lebron weighs in

[Dirk]

Timeline

Friday, Oct. 4: Morey Tweets
Sunday, Oct. 6: China reacts
Monday, Oct. 7: NBA's initial response sparks outrage
Tuesday, Oct. 8: The NBA responds again, Adam Silver makes statement
Wednesday, Oct. 9: Every one of the NBA's partners in China suspends ties
Oct. 10-13: Some NBA figures deflect questions
Oct. 14: Lebron weighs in

Useful links on RealGM

THE CURRENT AFFAIRS BOARD - https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewforum.php?f=69
Place to discuss more specific political and society issues. Also a good place to discuss the situation in Yemen, Myanmar, Xinjiang, Syria and, unfortunately, various other places around the world.

Hong Kong protests --- topic that was started in August.
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=78118995#p78118995

Trump topic.
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=1886331&start=980

Turkey/Syria topic.
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=1894872


We are on RealGM to talk sports. If we are to be mad and have animosity towards some other user(s), let it be because you hate their team, player, how bad of a poster they are or quite simply how the GB hates your team. The worst thing that political talk brings (especially of very cheap nature) is the fear that it will lead to bad blood between users that will spill over on to other discussions. Many use sports to escape the 24x7 barrage of political talk, be mindful of that, especially considering you have a section on RealGM dedicated to it.

At times there are topics that organically invite talk about different society issues there is no good reason why those can't exist and have some elevated discussion, as opposed to some dubious chain of messages that resemble an infinite amount of other sites out there where at this very moment you have all sorts of creepy discussions are going on. No one is changing the world on a basketball board. You're likely not even changing someone else's mind, so there really is no point in getting aggravated on these discussions. Don't let topics that are not the reason why you visit RealGM get the better of you.

We are living in history folks. A growing power has the leverage to buy off the silence of entire nations and exert pressure on huge American companies and if the NBA and their players are going on trial for their ties to China and the dilemma of 'morals' vs 'money'. Then surely, some will also look harder at other companies and higher up individuals as well. And to think that this possible change in these companies moral compass was ignited by the petty reaction to a fairly meaningless tweet.

Polls

Spoiler:

~11th October

~12th October

[KingDavid]

Sticky this maybe?

[First Step]

I just can't trust Silver who came out and said he wanted to have an even number of female to male refs.

Now when his interests are at risk, he doesn't come across as the woke leader he purports to be.

[Sark]

NBA needs to stop worrying about the Chinese market, and worry about its home market. If they love China so much, then move to China. No one is stopping them.

[lakerz12]

Curry should just be honest and say "No comment" or "At this time, I'm putting the interests of myself, my team, and our league first".

Instead, he's so afraid of not being perceived as the nice guy, that he lies and says he just doesn't understand Chinese history enough, etc. To comment.

Yeah right Steph. We know that you're just protecting yourself and your interests. Don't try to hide it.

Phony and weak.

[RookieStar]

NBA needs to stop worrying about the Chinese market, and worry about its home market. If they love China so much, then move to China. No one is stopping them.

I kinda agree. I mean, I would think the overinflated price for seats in the arena not to mention the food being sold which is priced probably 3-5x more than the ones outside gives majority profits to the NBA teams. I would think they would care more about that first rather than the market over the ocean?

[bulliedog8]

NBA should just abandon China. They don’t need China. Heck, start building a new base in India.

Silver is the worst commissioner in sports and it isn’t even close. Classic elitist who will tell us how to live, but lives with different rules

[KingDavid]

I just can't trust Silver who came out and said he wanted to have an even number of female to male refs.

Now when his interests are at risk, he doesn't come across as the woke leader he purports to be.

Isn't he the voice of the owners? Maybe some of them have businesses or business interest with or in China? Terrible situation all around. I feel for Morey because it reminds me of Colin Kaepernick. You want to bring light to a serious situation, and rightfully so. But when it isn't in the best interest of the conglomerate you're employed by, this **** happens.

[MagicBagley18]

NBA should just abandon China. They don’t need China. Heck, start building a new base in India.

Silver is the worst commissioner in sports and it isn’t even close. Classic elitist who will tell us how to live, but lives with different rules

Silver has his flaws but he is so far from the worst commissioner in sports

[kulaz3000]

NBA should just abandon China. They don’t need China. Heck, start building a new base in India.

Silver is the worst commissioner in sports and it isn’t even close. Classic elitist who will tell us how to live, but lives with different rules

Silver isn't the ruler of all of the NBA. Owners are welcome to speak on the matter, but the fact that they've all remained silent is quiet telling, that as business owners themselves, they too don't want to put themselves in a position where their basketball franchise, as well as their respective business who likely have a presence in China also, are in a position to be blackballed the same way.

This is not a cut and dry matter like you're putting it as, this has a bigger impact, not only to owners, the players, but also all the employees of the respective teams, as well as any other businesses they are aligned with. To put it simply, it's much a more complicated and sensitive situation, than the knee-jerk reactions I'm reading here, attempting to point the finger to justify their frustrations towards.

[Buzzard]

They said on ESPN that there are 300 million NBA fans in China. They do not make more money off of China but the revenue generated, if lost, would cut 5 million dollars yearly off a max contract during the last signing period. Klay Thompson's contract was the example Woj used.

The players are mum for a obvious reason. Let Silver take the Heat so they can at least try to keep their brand growing.

[tondi123]

I just can't trust Silver who came out and said he wanted to have an even number of female to male refs.

Now when his interests are at risk, he doesn't come across as the woke leader he purports to be.

Pretending to be woke has always been a business decision and kissing the ass of a bunch of mass murdering tyrants is also a business decision. Making a bunch of unqualified women refs doesn't cost them anything and gets them lots of pats on the back. Actually standing up to a regime where women (or men) have no rights is not their problem as long as the checks keep rolling in.

[cursedsportsfan]

Blizzard also is in big trouble with their customers.

We need to show these companies there is a price to pay for selling out.

[NBAFan93]

I just can't trust Silver who came out and said he wanted to have an even number of female to male refs.

Now when his interests are at risk, he doesn't come across as the woke leader he purports to be.

Pretending to be woke has always been a business decision and kissing the ass of a bunch of mass murdering tyrants is also a business decision. Making a bunch of unqualified women refs doesn't cost them anything and gets them lots of pats on the back. Actually standing up to a regime where women (or men) have no rights is not their problem as long as the checks keep rolling in.

It’s a tough one. I know I’d think long and hard before giving up 20% of my salary to make a stand for people I don’t even know or will never meet. It looks a little worse for these guys though as they already have millions of dollars and are set for life w/o that 20%, when I am not. So a guy AD will give up his $4M trade kicker to open up cap space to sign Kawhi, but not something like this? It looks a little worse.

However it may be more than just the dollar loss to their salaries - I bet they are getting huge pressure from companies like Nike - heck, they may even have clauses in their shoe contracts preventing them from speaking out on something like this.

[13th Man]

I just can't trust Silver who came out and said he wanted to have an even number of female to male refs.

Now when his interests are at risk, he doesn't come across as the woke leader he purports to be.

Pretending to be woke has always been a business decision and kissing the ass of a bunch of mass murdering tyrants is also a business decision. Making a bunch of unqualified women refs doesn't cost them anything and gets them lots of pats on the back. Actually standing up to a regime where women (or men) have no rights is not their problem as long as the checks keep rolling in.

The demographic of NBA viewership is probably at least 75% democratic I'm guestimating, that's why the NBA is not afraid to play SJW all siding with the left on every issue, no matter how absurd (equality of male to female refs...just LMAO!), cancelling the all-star game in Charlotte was also a huge joke.

When it comes to an issue that threatens their pocket books they cower away and play dumb.

[I beg to differ]

TAIWAN #1!

[Pharmcat]

I just can't trust Silver who came out and said he wanted to have an even number of female to male refs.

Now when his interests are at risk, he doesn't come across as the woke leader he purports to be.

Pretending to be woke has always been a business decision and kissing the ass of a bunch of mass murdering tyrants is also a business decision. Making a bunch of unqualified women refs doesn't cost them anything and gets them lots of pats on the back. Actually standing up to a regime where women (or men) have no rights is not their problem as long as the checks keep rolling in.

The demographic of NBA viewership is probably 75% democratic I'm guestimating, that's why the NBA is not afraid to play SJW all siding with the left on every issue, no matter how absurd (equality of male to female refs...just LMAO!).

When it comes to an issue that threatens their pocket books they cower away and play dumb.

this is the same reasoning the conservatives used against Kap: he was hurting the bottom line so its ok for NFL to make a business decision to ignore him. Now the same conservatives (ie Clay Travis) are calling out the NBA when the NBA is just trying to protect their bottom line (like those NFL owners were trying to do). The hypocrisy is unreal.

[lakerz12]

"More Than an Athlete" LeBron! Here's your chance!

[Swish1906]

If it wouldnt be for Luka&KP, i wouldnt buy LP out of principle now...garbage attitude by the NBA/teams. They werent even yelling or waiving it, just standing there

Read on Twitter

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Pretending to be woke has always been a business decision and kissing the ass of a bunch of mass murdering tyrants is also a business decision. Making a bunch of unqualified women refs doesn't cost them anything and gets them lots of pats on the back. Actually standing up to a regime where women (or men) have no rights is not their problem as long as the checks keep rolling in.

The demographic of NBA viewership is probably 75% democratic I'm guestimating, that's why the NBA is not afraid to play SJW all siding with the left on every issue, no matter how absurd (equality of male to female refs...just LMAO!).

When it comes to an issue that threatens their pocket books they cower away and play dumb.

this is the same reasoning the conservatives used against Kap: he was hurting the bottom line so its ok for NFL to make a business decision to ignore him. Now the same conservatives (ie Clay Travis) are calling out the NBA when the NBA is just trying to protect their bottom line (like those NFL owners were trying to do). The hypocrisy is unreal.

Hypocrisy is real on both sides, as is usually the case in politics. Only pointing out one side of it is silly to me when both sides are obviously doing it.