NBA commissioner seeks to shift message on China with new statement

The Hill ^ | 10/08/19 | Marty Johnson

[yesthatjallen]

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a new statement Tuesday as the sports league battled accusations from lawmakers in both parties that it had bowed to pressure from China in expressing regret over an executive's tweet of support for demonstrators in Hong Kong.

Silver said he recognized that the league's initial statement had left people "angered, confused or unclear on who we are or what the NBA stands for," and then insisted it would continue to offer support for free expression by players and executives.

At the same time, Silver made it clear the NBA would not be taking sides in the political dispute over civil rights in Hong Kong.

"It is inevitable that people around the world — including from America and China — will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences," Silver said in the statement.

"However, the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way."

The NBA found itself at the center of controversy after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Morey's tweet said "Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong."

SNIP

[Sarah Barracuda]

Yet NBA players and coaches(Like that douche bag Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich) have no problem trashing President Trump on a daily basis, yet they zip their traps when it comes to China

[MuttTheHoople]

Red China murdered more people than Hitler and Stalin combined.

[Alberta's Child]

Right. Look at all the posts on this thread complaining about the NBA commissioner’s public statement ... which happens to be the most unbiased, objective, non-committal statement you could ever expect to hear.

This reinforces exactly what I said here yesterday when the story first made the news. The NBA commissioner doesn’t give a damn about what goes on between a team owner and a GM, and probably spent hours trying to figure out why anyone would expect the NBA’s leadership to make any statement about it at all.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Literally nobody would notice or care. Are those rugby, soccer or cricket teams?

Agreed... and, for sure.. the US Government would block all their TV coverage or merchandise sales.

This is a terrific opportunity to teach the American sheeple just what China REALLY is: A smiling FASCIST, DICTATORIAL State.

[Impala64ssa]

Comedy Central did cave to the Muzzies with the Mohammed episode.
I remember. South Park regularly pokes fun at just about any other group, Blacks, Jews, Asians, gays, the disabled, you name it. EXCEPT for two groups. Scientologists, the episode where Tom Cruise refused to "come out of the closet". And Muslims, how DARE they depict mohammed as a bear! This extreme intolerance of ridicule is an interesting commonality between Scientologists and Islamists.

[edwinland]

" Daryl Morey Retweeted

Mitt Romney ‏ Verified account

@MittRomney Oct 4 More

When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.

37,081 replies40,246 retweets200,621 likes Reply 37K Retweet 40K Like 201K Show this thread

SO first the guy retweets an insult to the President of his own country and ... yawn ... the US government doesn't even reply, let alone try to shutter his business.

But the US government is the one that's going to jail all dissidents, according to Paul Krughead:

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman Starting to look like two possible outcomes: Trump and a number of others end up in jail, or thousands of journalists end up in prison camps https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1177721670435405824 …

[OrangeHoof]

Yet the NBA felt perfectly fine policing racial and homosexual slurs by players and fans as well as allowing players and coaches to disparage the President in all sorts of vile ways. Hypocrites.

[fella]

Sleep with Commies, get woke when against the wall.

A hard lesson going back to 1917 and beyond to 1789 France.

[Ohioan]

You understand Hell on Earth events. We all need to understand:

Leftist War On Social Continuity

Compulsion For Uniformity

[twister881]

Yes, tyrants can’t withstand criticism. Why the 1st Amendment is as important today as it ever was. (And the 2nd, too.)

[Ohioan]

It is not just tyrants. At least not as individuals.

Compulsion For Uniformity

[Truthoverpower]

Cuck Nothing more

[Red in Blue PA]

Cowards!

[Red in Blue PA]

Wonder if thisencoaches would be silent if there were muslim concentration camps in the US like 5heir are in China?

100% sarc

[blueplum]

not taking sides in civil rights issues? whew. That’s a relief. If it means no more bloviating, virtue-signaling and racebaiting from NBA players, most of whom owe their jobs and livelihoods to civil rights issues.

[mewzilla]

For the NBA, a quote...

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

Bold is mine.

[cgbg]

Yup—good advice—when you neck deep in the trench stop digging.

He is going to end up offering an apology for the apology for the apology for the apology before this is over!

[Midwesterner53]

I love watching liberals try to squirm out of their own mess.

[semantic]

Nice essays. My only criticism would be the attempt to address global events from the perspective of reasoned logic. That is, while the detailed analyses are on point, they ultimately end up missing the main target my assuming the enemy can be persuaded to care and/or alter their aggression.

Now, why would an adversary do that ie give up their advantage? If the goal is global conquest, and only the West presents any real obstacle to that end, then identifying their designed destruction of certain foundational culturally cohesive elements will not elicit any respect. Rather, it will simply result in (a) duh; and (b) so?

Secondly, politicians and others practiced in the dark arts of power and control aren't that smart. Clever & cunning, yes of course; but smart? No. That is, they don't follow technology, so they always miss the big seminal change events. Good example: neither JP nor D were anywhere towards developing nukes in WWII - it literally came out of right field.

So too these mad attempts at re-making man to create a new serf class beholden to dear leader(s). But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum: DNA engineering, in the form of applied genetic improvements. First up, cosmetic enhancements ie hair, eye, skin tone, color and texture. Wanna guess what universal standard of beauty will be pursued when facial/body alteration becomes possible? What then of intentional social discord and interest group (faction) leverage? Poof.

The future isn't diversity, it's uniformity. No one really wants to be different and/or low status. Everyone seeks the same thing: mate selection, desirability, economic comfort - resentment and appeals to group ID result from failures to achieve. Genetically even the playing field, and who will have time for marching & complaining? What then of politicians playing the margins?

[4Liberty]