THE NBA JUMPS FOR CHINA — The Weekly Opine

Should the NBA be blamed for mimicking Wall Street? (Photo credit: Nations Online, NBA, The Weekly Opine)

Like most U.S. businesses the NBA asks, how high?

Over at the National Basketball Association it was a high-flying summer filled with free agent intrigue, led by NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard leaving Toronto to join his hometown Los Angeles Clippers. Paul George, also a City of Angels native, is also now with the Clippers, arriving from Oklahoma City. Big Easy star Anthony Davis shipped out, joining LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Meaning one of the top story lines in the NBA this season will be the battle for L.A. supremacy.

Summer is surely baseball season, but this year fresh NBA content encroached the national pastime, filling in sports pages, blog posts and social media. Budding hype fueled the NBA during the summer, augmented by the arrival of once-in-a-generation rookie Zion Williamson.

Then suddenly, on the eve of maybe the most highly anticipated season ever, the NBA’s relationship with China threatens to strip a chunk of ‘cool’ from the league’s hipness veneer. The NBA, long considered the most progressive of the pro sports organizations, has watched their China business plan and global image damaged due to their response to a tweet from a team executive.

The rhubarb began when Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. China’s backlash was swift, including cancelling events tied to NBA exhibition games and refusing to broadcast a Lakers vs. Brooklyn Nets game. Footwear giant Li Ning (China’s version of Nike) at least temporarily pulled support of NBA activities in China as well.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver initially commented that Morey could tweet what he wanted because of free speech privileges enjoyed in America. When China reacted negatively, Silver backpedaled like he was trying to stop a 3-on-1 fast break. The Commish remembered that 800 million Chinese view streamed NBA games, courtesy of a $15 billion, 30-year media deal. As most American CEOs would do, Silver sought to protect his budding relationship, offering apologetic words to the Chinese government. The result was an equally swift backlash from U.S. media and the public.

When it comes to opportunities to grow the brand, Commissioner Adam Silver (L), Steve Kerr and James Harden know who is buttering their bread. (Photo credit: Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, TMZ)

Not their brother’s keeper

This whole incident begs questions. Why the expectation the NBA should stand up for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong? Why the expectation that, representing a league whose demographics are 70% black players, the coaches and players should speak up on behalf of democracy? This is particularly puzzling when you consider black folks have always been relegated to second-class citizens in the U S of A’s version of democracy.

Houston’s James Harden, coerced by management from the NBA or the Rockets, apologized to China saying, “We love China.” Harden was quickly taken to task on social media for doing what stateside mid-management employees do every day - cover for the boss. Nonetheless, Harden should not have been wedged into the middle of a global controversy he did not initiate.

Given centuries of poor treatment of blacks by the American government, it should not be foisted upon members of a sport that is ingrained in black culture to give voice to American values. Athletes waving the flag of human rights should only occur if they are able to do so within the context that all governments, be they authoritarian (China) or a democracy (America), must treat all their citizens with dignity and respect.

Many of the people railing against the NBA saw no evil when the Bush administration laid out the “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” lie. (Otherwise, a fan of Michelle Obama, I cannot reconcile her friendship with W. Bush, the man responsible for the reckless, devastating war in Iraq.)

U.S. supporters of the Hong Kong protesters are indignant that Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr did the Euro step, gliding past an opportunity to challenge China’s human rights abuse status quo.

Yet many people, e.g. Sen. Ted Cruz, will not lift a finger to stop gun carnage in America. So many of them, e.g. former-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, look the other way while poor sections in so-called great cities receive far less than adequate resources, while rich neighborhoods abuse tax increment finance laws to enrich themselves. Politicians appropriate billions of dollars for military hardware. But they won’t be bothered with devising a plan to provide access to free healthcare for all Americans.

Those are issues I would like NBA players speak out against, rather than Hong Kong protests.

LeBron James, the NBA’s Big Dog, usually opines about social issues with pinpoint accuracy. This week he put up an air ball, claiming Moyer was not “educated on the situation at hand.” Apparently covering for the NBA, Nike and his own relationship with China, LeBron said people were compromised “not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually.” Was he advised or did LeBron speak freely? Either way, words of a wealthy man protecting one of his powerful revenue streams. So All-American.

Every two years, the world gives human rights a collective cold shoulder. (Photo credit: Amazon)

Handle the home front

Until recently, few Americans were willing to impeach Trump. Even after the Mueller Report, which clearly outlined multiple impeachable offenses, most Americans shrugged their shoulders, excusing themselves because “the Senate will not convict.” Most Americans were willing to risk another four years of Trump, rather than follow the Constitution and impeach a president who was clearly abusing the power of his office and obstructing justice.

Fortunately, Ukrainegate showed up like a late-afternoon UPS delivery. Had the House begun a serious inquiry into Trump last March, when Mueller gave them a road map full of green lights, this Ukraine business would likely have been discovered shortly after it occurred, following Mueller’s congressional testimony. That’s to say it is possible Trump would already be gone, as we now (surprise! surprise!) observe that senators and Republican supporters will indeed turn on Trump as his gluttonous corruption is uncovered.

Some may find it offensive, but the NBA – like America did last March – just shrugged its shoulders. The league is effectively saying China ‘is what it is’ and nothing the NBA does will change the authoritarian regime. In fact, the NBA is doing what powerful Americans and American companies do all the time. Ignore inconvenient truths to protect their own financial interests.

Where was the outrage against U.S. corporate sponsors during the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008? Did anyone ask Michael Phelps about the inhumane treatment dished on Chinese laborers who built the venues? Same questions hold true regarding the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Corporate sponsors wrap themselves in the spirit of the games, hoping they receive a return on their investment, undaunted by human rights atrocities right under their noses.

Frankly, it’s offensive when MSNBC’s Ali Velshi invites racist GOP presidential hopeful Joe Walsh on his show. It is also offensive when CNN’s Chris Cuomo invites serial liar Kellyanne Conway on his show, giving her a platform to shred our democracy by spreading “alternative facts” to assist Trump’s plan to make America fascist.

It doesn’t seem to be a matter of whether the NBA supports freedom of speech. Surely, they do. It seems the NBA is doing what American corporations do every day. Protecting their financial investment to maximize returns.

Another cop (Aaron Dean) murdered a black person (Atatiana Jefferson) in her home. Spare the hugs. The death penalty will do. (Photo credit: WBGH, Gossiponthis)

243-70

No, not the score of an NBA exhibition game played in China.

A columnist for the Washington Post recently asked, when will China grow up? Well, the People’s Republic of China recently celebrated its 70th anniversary. Last July, the United States turned 243 years old. Pardon me, but it is maximum hypocrisy for America, more than two centuries old and incapable of solving fundamental issues of human rights and dignity, to question how other countries treat their citizens.

Case in point, the American epidemic of cops shooting citizens reached another low last weekend. In Fort Worth, Texas a white cop murdered a 28-year-old black woman who was sitting in a bedroom in her home, playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. American cops have already shot to death 709 people this year.

As a black man who is sick and tired of cops ruthlessly shooting black people, I would be more interested in the NBA denouncing the rash of police union-supported violence meted out on minorities in the United States.

Let’s hope for the best regarding pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. But be careful what you wish for. Democracy in America is not all it claims to be.