NBA's Silver says Hong Kong tweet
furor already hit league's bottom line
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[October 19, 2019]
By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) - NBA Commissioner Adam
Silver said on Thursday that the fallout following a tweet from a
Houston Rockets official who backed the Hong Kong democracy protests
has already cost the league substantial financial losses in China.
The National Basketball Association spent years building a huge
following and burgeoning business in China, a market worth an
estimated $4 billion for the league, but its future in the country
is suddenly on shaky ground.
"I felt we had made enormous progress in terms of building cultural
exchanges with the Chinese people. And, again, I have regret that
much of that was lost," Silver said at the Time 100 Health Summit in
New York.
"And I'm not even sure where we'll go from here, but the direct
answer to your question is the financial consequences have been and
may continue to be fairly dramatic."
The controversy began this month after Rockets General Manager Daryl
Morey tweeted his support for the pro-democracy demonstrators in a
since-deleted post that included an image captioned: "Fight For
Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong."
In the aftermath of Morey's tweet, China did not broadcast or stream
the two preseason games that were held in the country between the
Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets while the NBA canceled many
player appearances.
Corporate partners in the country have also scrapped or suspended
relations with the league.
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Adam Silver, Commissioner of the NBA, gives a statement during a
news conference in Tokyo, Japan October 8, 2019 in this still image
taken from a video. Reuters TV via REUTERS
"Our games are not back on the air in China as we speak," Silver
said in his first public appearance since returning from his recent
trip to Asia.
Silver also said the Chinese government has asked that Morey, who
was named the NBA's executive of the year in 2018, be fired for the
tweet.
"We said there's no chance that's happening," said Silver, who has
previously stated the league would not apologize for Morey
expressing his freedom of expression. "There’s no chance we’ll even
discipline him."
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang denied that Beijing
made such a demand against Morey, however.
"We especially went to the relevant departments to check on this
claim," Geng told reporters during the ministry's daily briefing in
the Chinese capital on Friday. "The Chinese government has never
made this kind of request."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; additional reporting by
Huizhong Wu in Beijing; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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