The NBA is still in the midst of returning to its normal schedule, as coronavirus cases force the league to delay and reschedule games. One area of the league’s normalcy has returned faster than others: its relationship with China.
Chinese internet company Tencent finally returned the Houston Rockets to its airwaves as they faced the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. It was the first time Tencent broadcast a Rockets game since then-Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of protesters in Hong Kong.
Since the 2020-2021 season started, all but one NBA team has had a game broadcast on Tencent. The one exception is the Philadelphia 76ers, with whom Morey signed after his surprise resignation from Houston. Meanwhile, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV ended its season-long blackout of the league for the last two games of the NBA Finals in October.
It’s a small road bump on the NBA’s path back to its Chinese audience. The league is already planning on returning to play games in China next season. But interest in the league’s subservience to China’s genocidal regime has waned, as players, coaches, and the league itself have continued to present themselves back home as social-justice icons.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has continued only to interview with friendly outlets that won’t push him on the greater flaws in the league’s relationship with China. Silver said that China’s human rights abuses, including the genocide campaign being waged against the Uighurs, was just “one issue.” Silver still hasn’t been forced to answer for the NBA’s basketball academies in China, where Chinese coaches physically abused the young players participating in the program.
Meanwhile, players like LeBron James are still held up as social-justice leaders, no matter how ignorant their remarks become. LeBron still carries water for the Chinese Communist Party, with merchandise sales and his new Space Jam film on the line. Nike, which makes the NBA’s jerseys, has lobbied against legislation that would ban imported goods made by forced labor of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
The NBA is counting on a quiet return to normal with China. But the bargain the NBA has made should not be forgotten. The league continues to stay silent on the CCP’s abuses while it trips over itself to condemn the United States at every opportunity. The NBA did not learn its lesson after Morey first backed the Hong Kong protesters, and it still hasn’t learned it now.
