<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654539966180,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654539966180,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_48059342", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"978609"} }); ","_id":"00000181-3a30-dedf-ad93-bf7332aa0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedNBA Commissioner Adam Silver is always defensive about the league’s deference to China, but he doesn’t seem to understand that the criticism the league earns is based on its own standards.
Silver once again said that the NBA’s relationship with China is a positive thing and that “using sports as a platform to keep people around the world talking is critically important.” He said that it’s not inconsistent with the league’s values to broadcast games in China and that American politicians unfairly single out the league when many large corporations also do business there. “And if people are suggesting now that we should no longer have trade relations with China … that’s a huge global issue where we will follow the lead from our government,” Silver said.
Yet Silver misses the point on all three of his defenses. The first, that “using sports as a platform to keep people around the world talking is critically important,” is right in theory, but the direction of those conversations matters, too. The NBA is not using its platform to promote freedom of speech, democracy, or basic human rights on the global stage. Instead, it allows its relationship with authoritarian regimes like China to govern how athletes and coaches speak domestically.
That’s why LeBron James chose to support China’s authoritarian regime and call pro-democracy protesters and their supporters uneducated. Golden State Warriors minority owner Chamath Palihapitiya mocked those who were concerned about China’s genocide of the Uyghurs, a natural outgrowth of the Warriors’ stated goal of becoming “China’s team in the NBA.” Only one figure in the entire NBA, Enes Kanter Freedom, dared to speak out against the regime. He was quickly out of a job.
That bleeds into his second point. No, it is not inconsistent with the league’s values to broadcast games in China. But, in order to do that, players and coaches across the league have decided to ignore blatant human rights abuses to stay in the Chinese market. The NBA even ran basketball academies where Chinese coaches physically abused children, then told current and former league officials not to talk to the media about it.
Finally, Silver suggests that the NBA is being unfairly singled out. But the NBA is one of the most culturally influential institutions in the country, and Silver knows it. More importantly, the league itself recognizes that fact and embraces it when it comes time to push Democratic policies and liberal cultural movements. Silver thinks the league should be treated as just another face in the crowd when it comes to China, even while it puts itself front and center on every other political question, most recently gun control.
Silver is either simply misreading the NBA’s relationship with China and American culture or misleading friendly reporters who will offer him no pushback. Either way, his claims contradict the league’s actions and its own professed social justice goals. The NBA doesn’t want to hold itself to its own standards when it comes to China because that would mean losing more money.
