Adam Silver did his best to sound optimistic. Maybe he even believed what he was saying. Late last week, the NBA commissioner gave a quick interview with TMZ Sports. That was the same day Silver spoke at the Time 100 Health Summit and expressed frustration at the perception that the NBA had “acquiesced to the Chinese” in the aftermath of the ongoing controversy over Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeting an image that said “fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” But Silver reminded TMZ Sports that the NBA regular season tips off on Tuesday and said it was “back to basketball.”
“We all have to move on with our lives,” Silver added.
Yeah … about that. If Silver and the rest of the league were hoping that all this would blow over after Morey’s tweet exploded the longstanding and lucrative relationship between the NBA and China, they must certainly know by now that won’t happen. No one is moving on anytime soon—least of all the Chinese government. This weekend, Chinese state media said Silver “fabricated lies out of nothing,” accused him of defaming the country on the international stage, and threatened that he would “receive retribution sooner or later.”
That was just part of China’s pushback to Silver’s remarks on the Time 100 Health Summit panel, during which the commissioner revealed that the NBA and the Rockets were pressured by the Chinese government and businesses to fire Morey. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang denied the government made such a demand while adding that the NBA “knows better than anyone else” how to repair the fractured relationship between the league and China. Silver insisted that there was “no chance” Morey would be disciplined. But shortly after Morey’s since-deleted tweet sparked the current conflict, I reported that the Rockets had at least considered whether to replace the general manager in an attempt to cauterize what has proved to be a very big wound. As Silver conceded, “the financial consequences have been and may continue to be fairly dramatic.”
The NBA’s business relationship with China is reportedly worth more than $4 billion. But beyond the traditional revenue streams like the broadcast rights, there are also potential ripple effects that could impact individual marketing and sponsorship opportunities for players. Someone like LeBron James stands to lose as much as (or more than) anyone—and that’s almost certainly why he took the very first opportunity he had upon returning from China to pick a fight with Morey, call him “misinformed,” and accuse him of thinking only about himself. LeBron botched those comments so badly that he had to almost immediately walk them back on Twitter—which was both hilarious and ironic—and the next day at practice, James said he wouldn’t talk about the issue again moving forward because “we’re not politicians.”
That seemed about as naive as Silver saying “we all need to move on with our lives.” James might not want to talk about the matter anymore, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be asked about it. Just consider what happened in Brooklyn on Friday. Scores of protesters attended a Nets preseason game and wore masks and shirts stamped with “Stand with Hong Kong.” The image and attendant message were striking.
Not surprisingly, some of the Nets players were asked about the demonstration, including Kyrie Irving, who tossed a word-soup response at reporters. No one was ejected in Brooklyn—but in-arena protests followed by endless questions represents the league’s nightmare scenario. The NBA doesn’t have a uniform policy for ejections. That’s left to individual teams and arenas, which is why this situation has proved so thorny.
At a recent preseason game in Philadelphia between the Sixers and the Guangzhou Long-Lions, two fans had signs reading “Free Hong Kong” and “Free HK” confiscated by Wells Fargo Center security. Those same fans were later ejected by security for chanting “Free Hong Kong” and arguing with people in their section. That forced the Sixers and the Wells Fargo Center to issue statements to explain the reasoning behind the ejections. More recently, there were protests outside and inside Capital One Arena in D.C. before a preseason Wizards game. And just last week there was a big demonstration outside Madison Square Garden in advance of a Knicks preseason game.
This is a lose-lose situation for the NBA. If the league stands for democratic values and supports Morey and others like him who speak up on social issues, it will further anger China. If the NBA tries to repair the relationship with China in the interest of bottom-line business, it will anger everyone on the domestic political spectrum ranging from Ted Cruz to Beto O’Rourke. In a hyperpolarized country, this might be the last unifying issue with bipartisan agreement. There’s no middle ground here, and the line is too fine for anyone to walk, no matter how careful they try to be with their language—which is part of the reason why Silver’s initial response did not help his image or reputation. As messes go, it would take an industrial-sized drum of high-power solvent to clean this thing up, but right now it feels like the league is coming at the complicated conflict with little more than a squeegee and a half-empty bottle of Windex.
In fairness, even the most deft crisis management strategy probably wouldn’t make this thing go away anytime soon. The Chinese government seems unlikely to back down or cool off on an issue that Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai described in a pro-PRC Facebook post as “one of those third-rail issues, not only for the Chinese government, but also for all citizens in China.”
It’s already clear that a handful of organized protesters can control the narrative and force the league to keep talking about China and Hong Kong simply by showing up to games. And on the point of in-arena protests, there’s no one or good solution for the NBA. There’s a fan code of conduct on the books, but ultimately real-time decisions on how to handle these things occur on a case-by-case basis. As we’ve seen in the past, that lack of uniformity has proved problematic. Last season, a fan in Utah directed what the Jazz called “excessive and derogatory verbal abuse” at Russell Westbrook. And while that fan was subsequently permanently banned from Jazz games, he was not ejected that evening and was in fact later interviewed in the stands. Meanwhile, two Sixers fans were tossed for chanting “Free Hong Kong.” Those things aren’t the same—but neither was the punishment. Some arenas have no-sign policies in place, but how might teams act if (or more likely when) more pro–Hong Kong protesters pop up in their buildings? How loud is too loud to chant a message of protest—and what exactly constitutes behavior that rises to the level of ejection? The slope here is already super slippery, and the rapid downhill descent is well underway.
When I asked the NBA for an official comment on the Sixers ejections, I was told it wasn’t a league matter. But it is, of course—all of this is and will continue to be, regardless of how much the league office would prefer otherwise. Things have gotten so messy that Silver told TMZ Sports it was “unclear” whether the league would return to China next preseason.
“We do need to reset with the Chinese government,” Silver said, “and everybody has to establish what the rules of the road are going to be going forward.”
That’s a fine idea, but it’s fair to wonder whether things will calm down enough on the ground in Hong Kong—and, accordingly, in the stands here in the States—for the desired reset to take place. On Sunday, despite a police ban, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Hong Kong. According to The New York Times, some demonstrators threw firebombs at the police, and officers responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. Many of the protesters also wore face masks in direct defiance of a law that banned them earlier this month at the order of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. None of this will make Silver’s desire to “establish the rules of the road” any easier. As much as the commissioner would like one, there doesn’t appear to be an off-ramp up ahead.
