NBA Commissioner: League Has Lost Millions Due to Strained Relationship with China
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NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that the league has lost “hundreds of millions” of dollars since China first pulled its games off CCTV in October 2019 in response to the then-general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeting in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
While China responded to Daryl Morey’s comments by imposing an NBA blackout until late March — aside from a one-off showing of the NBA Finals in October 2020 — Silver said he stands behind its players’ and team executives’ right to free speech.
“Others since then have spoken out about their views around China and other places in the world, and if the consequences are that we’re taken off the air or we lose money, we accept that,” he said, according to Reuters.
He said that he believes “engagement is positive, particularly through sports.”
“Using sports as a platform to keep people around the world talking is critically important,” he said. “At the same time, I don’t think it’s inconsistent with our values for our game to be broadcast in China and 200-plus other countries in the world.”
Boston Celtics star Enes Kanter has been outspoken in calling out China for its human rights atrocities and in calling out the NBA and his fellow players, including LeBron James, for their silence on the issue and their willingness to continue to do business with China.
Kanter said in November that Silver affirmed his right to speak out against injustice in China, despite one of his previous protests against China’s treatment of Tibet having led to the Chinese video-streaming site Tencent pulling the Celtics’ season opener. Tencent pays more than $1 billion to the NBA.
Silver on Thursday seemed to make excuses for the NBA’s business dealings in China, saying it is just one of many companies working with the country and that U.S. politicians tend to single the league out.
“From a policy standpoint, virtually every Fortune 100 company is doing business in China. We have an enormous, humongous trade relationship with China. Virtually all the phones in this room, the clothes you are wearing, the shoes you are wearing, are made in China,” he said. “From a larger societal standpoint, this is something where we have to look to the U.S. government for direction.
He continued: “And if people are suggesting now that we should no longer have trade relations with China, and I don’t think they are, that’s a huge global issue where we will follow the lead from our government.”
Several NBA team owners have expressed a flippant attitude when pressed on China’s human rights abuses.
Golden State Warriors part-owner Chamath Palihapitiya suggested in January that “nobody cares” about China’s system of concentration camps, forced labor, and high-tech surveillance against the Uyghur community in Xinjiang.
“Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay,” Palihapitiya said during an appearance on the All-In podcast. “You bring it up because you care and I think it’s nice that you care. The rest of us don’t care. I’m just telling you a very hard, ugly truth. Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line.”
He went on to list other issues that occupy his focus, including climate change, the potential economic fallout of China invading Taiwan, and U.S. stores not having stocked shelves. The Warriors part-owner said that if America is able to find solutions to all of its own issues then he might shift focus to the oppression of the Uyghurs.
The comments were reminiscent of that of another NBA owner, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who said in October 2020 that he is “against human rights violations around the world,” though he is “OK doing business with China,” where more than one million Muslims have been imprisoned in concentration camps because “we have to pick our battles.”
Cuban’s comments came during an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show podcast, in which the former Fox News and NBC News host asked why Cuban and the NBA wouldn’t “explicitly condemn” the numerous human rights abuses being carried out by the Chinese government, including the ethnic cleansing of Muslims, torture, forced labor, coercive population controls, forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
“I personally put a priority on domestic issues. I’m against human rights violations around the world,” Cuban said at the time.
