China has vowed “retribution” against NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for his role in last week’s standoff between the nation and the league, writes Catherine Wong of The South China Morning Post (hat tip to NBC Sports).
In a commentary that aired today, state-run CCTV claims Silver “crossed the bottom line” with his continued support of Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who set off the dispute with an Oct. 4 tweet supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
Silver said this week that Chinese officials had demanded that Morey be fired, but the commissioner refused to take any disciplinary action, citing the right to free speech. However, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, disputed that claim yesterday.
“Silver has spared no effort to portray himself as a fighter for free speech and used freedom of speech as an excuse to cover for Morey, who voiced his support for the violent actors in Hong Kong,” CCTV said. “This has crossed the bottom line of the Chinese people.”
The broadcast also accused Silver of having “double standards” and charged that he “defamed” China in front of an international audience.
“To please some American politicians, Silver has fabricated lies out of nothing and has sought to paint China as unforgiving,” CCTV claimed. The network also accused Morey of having “problems in his character” and promised he “will receive retribution sooner or later.”
I like how China’s response to these comments are self-serving justification for why the comments were made to begin with.
Make a stand and pull the NBA from China. That’ll tick off a billion people.
Agreed
hopefully this pushes silver to take a hard line stance on China
Time for the nba to be done with the commies. You’ll take a hit in the wallet but they need to understand they don’t drive the bus here and never will.
100%
And so the drama escalates…
Who cares what the Chinese think about the NBA…..Silver has to stomach popular opinion and forget his own personal leanings……
This is about defending democracy and basic human rights lol
Leave China
Lashing out at Silver and Morey is better than running over your own citizens with tanks.
The NBA getting blacklisted is hilarious. Instead of having a backbone, Silver took a damage control approach and it still won’t work. Really speaks volumes on why you shouldn’t deal with commies.
And some people think they have it bad in America. Try living in communist countries like China.
Cool story, China.
So their government basically threatened Morey now? These fools have lost their damn minds
Gee, lets see how the woke crowd likes gobbledegook accusations of lying and personal attacks for made up reasons…
Good for Adam Silver. He basically told China to go F themselves when they asked for Morey to be fired. I don’t hear him getting enough credit for this, when it would have been easy to cave. He’s putting his money where his mouth is and doing the right thing. And now China is throwing threats at Adam Silver? Acting like children with their hissy fits and empty propaganda statements
If by go f yourself you mean he took the most politically correct damage control professionally written cop out lines ever than you he really stuck it to them
Did you miss the part when China asked Silver for Morey to be fired, and he said no, he won’t even discipline him? He has stood for free speech since day one. If anyone has been copping out with politically correct stances, it’s the players like Harden and LeBron. At the end of the day, Silver could have defused this situation by firing Morey, which would have been the absolutely wrong move and set a terrible precedent for the league moving forward, but he didn’t. He told China to go F themselves, and for that I am proud of Adam.
I think the Chinese government is [REDACTED] and I [REDACTED] the people of Hong Kong.
I wonder what LeBron thinks. Oh, wait….
LeBron thinks “I going to loose money if I knock China”.
Silver: “We’re on to India”
China forgiving?
HAHAHAHAHA!
Silver is a self-righteous hypocrite. He needs to publicly address the league’s overall relationship with China in light of the latter’s actions in the aftermath of tweet. Not call a PC to announce that the he and the NBA aren’t the wimps they’ve behaved like since the tweet, and in fact just did stand up to the bully. Take their word for it. Wow, the league won’t fire a GM (has it ever for any reason?) at China’s say so.
Raise your hand if you think NBA owners care about free speech. They want Silver to work this out because of the $$ involved. Could Silver lose his job so the owners get a reset with China? Possibly. China is pushing hard so somebody’s head has to roll.
If getting Silver fired by the owners is the retribution they speak of… it’s
quite an overreaction… seemingly, empty autocratic muscle-flexing.
IDK of any bargaining position they’re trying to stake out that might explain it otherwise.
Now the Chinese gov’t is under pressure (from themselves) to do something.
Do they feel intimidated by the rising popularity of an American thing?– and one they cannot match, or have not matched.
Don’t forget the Chinese are at least as racist as anyone else. The world is racist… some Americans have not figured that out yet.