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  • Everyone is furious at the NBA.

  • People in China...

  • And in America.

  • This is China Uncensored.

  • I'm Chris Chappell.

  • Well, I'm sorry to say,

  • the NBA has not made a slam dunk in China this week.

  • This is Daryl Morey.

  • You may know him as the general manager of the Houston Rockets.

  • But in China, he's public enemy number 1!

  • Last week he tweeted this.

  • Fight for freedom.

  • Stand with Hong Kong.”

  • A pretty bold move, considering NBA China

  • yes that's a thingis worth more than 4 billion dollars.

  • But faster than you can say,

  • good on him for risking a Chinese backlash

  • to stand up for liberty,”

  • he deleted the Tweet.

  • Because it created an uproar in China.

  • And the owner of the Houston Rockets was like,

  • whoa, this guy does not speak for us.

  • And Morey quickly walked his tweet back,

  • saying he did not intend his tweet to cause any offense

  • to Rockets fans and friends in China.

  • He's got loads of friends in China.

  • None of whom support freedom in Hong Kong, obviously.

  • But the Houston Rockets damage control didn't stop there.

  • One of their star players, James Harden,

  • announced the Houston Rockets Love China!

  • We love China, we love...

  • We love everything they're about

  • and appreciate the support they give us.”

  • Yes, the Houston Rockets love everything China's about.

  • Here's footage of Chinese police leading a group of Uighurs

  • into a concentration camp.

  • Side note, the NBA runs a training center in Xinjiang...

  • the same region where Chinese police

  • are putting all those Uighurs in concentration camps.

  • But back to the current NBA-China controversy.

  • The NBA itself issued an official apology,

  • saying that they recognized that the tweet

  • deeply offended fans in China,

  • which was regrettable.

  • But on their Chinese language social media account,

  • the statement was a little different.

  • It said, “We are extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comment

  • by the General Manager of the Houston Rockets...

  • he has undoubtedly seriously hurt

  • the feelings of Chinese basketball fans...

  • we have the utmost respect for the history and culture of China.”

  • Good thing no one outside China can read Chinese!

  • No one will ever know how spineless

  • the NBA's Chinese apology was.

  • But Daryl Morey at least didn't hurt the feelings

  • of *this* Chinese basketball fan,

  • who posted a photo of himself with a message saying,

  • “I live and die with the [Houston Rockets],

  • come arrest me.”

  • Three hours later, they did come arrest him.

  • We love everything they're about.”

  • So after all the back-tracking and kowtowing,

  • did the NBA manage to get cool with

  • the world's most brutal authoritarian regime?

  • Nope.

  • The NBA's Chinese partners still suspended ties with them.

  • And Chinese media won't be broadcasting

  • the NBA's preseason games in China.

  • What I'm saying is that the NBA is being cancelled in China.

  • That's not surprising.

  • What is surprising,

  • is the universal condemnation the Rockets

  • are getting from both sides of the aisle in the United States.

  • Like Democratic Presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke

  • and Republican Senator Ted Cruz,

  • who until this week, never agreed on anything.

  • The NBA has spent years developing a huge fanbase in China.

  • But that doesn't mean they can ignore the backlash in America.

  • NBA Commissioner Adam Silver came out and unapologized-ish.

  • "We are not apologising for Daryl (Morey)

  • exercising his freedom of expression....

  • "The long held values of the NBA

  • are to support freedom of expression,

  • and certainly freedoms of expression by the NBA community,

  • and in this case Daryl Morey

  • as the General Manager of the Houston Rockets

  • enjoys that right as one of our employees.

  • What I also try to suggest is I understand

  • that there are consequences from that exercise of

  • in essence his freedom of speech,

  • and we will have to live with those consequences."

  • Now that may not seem like much, but remember,

  • China once got Marriott to apologize and fire an employee

  • for accidentally using the Marriott Twitter account

  • to like a Free Tibet tweet.

  • Obviously the real problem here is Twitter.

  • But the consequences of the NBA controversy are just beginning.

  • And they're showing ordinary Americans

  • how much power the Chinese Communist Party

  • has on American companies...even in America.

  • For example, in an internal memo,

  • ESPN instructed their shows to

  • avoid any political discussions about China and Hong Kong

  • when discussing the NBA story.

  • And then fans who took Free Hong Kong signs to an NBA game

  • were kicked outin Philadelphia.

  • And had their signs confiscated in Washington DC.

  • So now all because of one tweet about Hong Kong,

  • many Americans have gone from not knowing

  • that China has a Communist Party to realizing

  • how much power the Chinese Communist Party has.

  • In a not-good way.

  • So while China is crying foul,

  • perhaps in the end,

  • this was nothing but net.

  • The kind where you miss entirely and only hit net.

  • So what do you think?

  • Leave your comments below.

  • Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.

  • See you next time.

Everyone is furious at the NBA.

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