NBA game to go ahead in Shanghai amid growing backlash to comments on Hong Kong

[October 10, 2019]  By Se Young Lee and Winni Zhou

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of Chinese basketball fans waved national flags in a Shanghai arena on Thursday ahead of an NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets amid a huge backlash against a tweet backing anti-China protests in Hong Kong.

Roads near the stadium were blocked off and those attending the exhibition game had to go through two rounds of security checks. Tickets sold for as high as 18,888 yuan ($2,650).

Several street vendors were selling Chinese national flags outside the arena and some people had called online on those going to the game to carry flags in a show of force.

The now-deleted tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting anti-government protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong has sparked a furore in China，with a fan event canceled and Chinese partners cutting ties with the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Some people protested outside the stadium against Morey and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has spoken out in support of Morey.

One such protester, who declined to be named, was holding up a small sign with expletives directed at Morey and Silver.

"There are no Lakers or Nets fans tonight. We are all Chinese basketball fans," the protester said.

NO SHOW

NBA events scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday were canceled and Chinese sponsors and partners have suspended or severed ties with the league.

State broadcaster CCTV and Tencent <0700.HK> will not show Thursday's game or the rematch scheduled for Saturday in Shenzhen on their platforms, underscoring the severity of the fallout.

The NBA said in an email on Thursday that players and personnel would not be made available to the media. The league had scheduled a briefing before and after the game, and Silver had been expected to address the media.

The Hong Kong protests began in opposition to a bill allowing extradition to mainland China but have since evolved into broader calls for democracy. China has accused the West of stirring up anti-Beijing sentiment in Hong Kong, and Chinese state media has characterized Morey's tweet as the latest example of meddling in China's own affairs.

Silver spoke out in support of Morey's freedom of expression on Tuesday, further angering Beijing. The NBA's business in China, which took years to cultivate and is estimated to be worth more than $4 billion, is under immense pressure.

NBA logos are seen next to Chinese national flags outside a NBA-themed lifestyle complex on the outskirts of Tianjin, China October 10, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Saturday's Lakers-Nets game would take place.

ROCKETS GOODS DISAPPEAR

Houston Rockets sneakers and other merchandise were pulled from several Nike <NKE.N> and NBA stores in major Chinese cities, with the franchise's direct association with Morey making it a central target of the furore. Managers at some of the Nike stores said they had been instructed to remove the goods via an internal memo from management.

A specialist NBA store at a major shopping center in Shanghai removed all Rockets merchandise, as did the basketball-themed NBA Playzone family entertainment centres in Beijing and Shanghai.

"Rockets products were hot before and when you stepped into the store, it was full of red. Now, it is mostly yellow and blue," the colours of the Golden State Warriors, said a manager at the Shanghai Playzone, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Nike and the NBA did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Other major Chinese retailers, including Alibaba <BABA.N> and JD.com <JD.O>, also pulled Rockets merchandise off their various platforms. Alibaba and JD.com declined to comment.

Chinese state and party-backed media continued to publish items critical of the NBA. The official English China Daily published an editorial cartoon on Thursday playing on the NBA's official logo of an athlete dribbling a basketball. The cartoon instead put a bomb labeled "politics" in the athlete's hand, leaving the basketball fallen by the wayside.

U.S. sports broadcaster ESPN was also criticized for its coverage of the row after using a map that appeared to endorse Beijing's claims to both self-ruled Taiwan and disputed territories in the South China Sea.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Winni Zhoug, Xihao Jiang and David Stanway in Shanghai; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Nick Macfie)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.