In the latest news on the NBA’s ongoing controversy with China, Sopan Deb of The New York Times writes that Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, despite publicly distancing himself and his franchise from the now-famous tweet by general manager Daryl Morey, never considered firing or even punishing Morey.
Interestingly, however, there was no explanation as to why Fertitta began liking posts on Instagram supportive of Morey’s firing then, but Fertitta did explain why he was – and still is – not okay with Morey’s tweet.
In a written explanation, Fertitta said that he needed to initially distance the Rockets from Morey because he “felt it was important to make the distinction between Daryl speaking as a private citizen and Daryl as a representative of the Houston Rockets… (and the Rockets) have never commented on another country’s foreign policy.”
Deb notes, however, that Fertitta himself has been willing to speak on politics before without distancing the Rockets from his views. Accordingly, Fertitta was asked whether he’d be comfortable with his employees publicly voicing their political views in the future. He declined to comment.
Why doesn’t Clark Crum provide a little more detail on Fertitta’s political comments rather than just teasing the subject and abruptly cutting off the article?
You can bet the Chinese are digging.
Not literally, we won’t be attacked from the basement.
Because ppl will get upset. Sports>Politics chill
Ferttita seems to be two faced.
Not famous tweet by Morey but infamous.
Infamous implies what Morey said was bad. Didn’t know you were on China’s side.
I’m on the side of sports, can’t care any less about politics!
Mike Pence made a statement today about the NBA and it’s the first time I 100% agree with what he said. NBA players constantly talk about the issues of human rights in this country, but when it comes to China/Money they have nothing to say and wanna silence their own who support the protesters of China, amazing.
Too bad he totally contradicted himself because he got all up in a huff about NFL players kneeling during the anthem. He was right in this situation about the NBA and China but he’s a hypocrite that only commented because NBA players have been critical of the Trump administration.
So disagreeing with the actions of football players means he doesn’t actually care about free speech and liberty? Nice logic.
Yeah. Because they were excercising their freedom of speech.
Except they aren’t. They are in uniform, on the clock, representing the organization. More used his personal account not tied to the Organization, and made a comment as a private citizen on his own time. Grow a brain.
Does that matter? Steps have been taken since to curb that freedom from a work standpoint but just because they were at work doesn’t mean that they aren’t allowed by the government to exercise their freedom of speech.
If you don’t know the difference between disagreeing with what someone says or does and what China is doing I don’t know what to tell you. Isn’t it a novel thought you can disagree with someone yet still support their right to free speech?
He wasn’t supporting their right to free speech, he was trying to rile up the GOP base to put pressure on the NFL to censor them. And that’s what happened. The ONLY reason he is getting involved now on this China situation is because the NBA players have went against this administration in the past.
Lebron sure was
He needs to stop being a hypocrite and just worry about his brand.
He was and that got him in trouble for being a hypocrite.
Isn’t Morey’s face too small for his head?
This is all so delicious.