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NBA Game Plan to Sidestep Controversy in China: Shut Up and Play

The game -- the first of two -- won’t be televised in China, but it’s supposed to be broadcast internationally.

NBA Game Plan to Sidestep Controversy in China: Shut Up and Play
Player Marcus Morris in action at halftime. (Source: NBA Official Twitter Page) 

(Bloomberg) -- The NBA is playing it safe in China.

The U.S. pro basketball league said it is blocking media access to teams playing exhibition games in the country as it looks to contain the crisis that erupted in its most important offshore market after a team executive tweeted support for Hong Kong’s protesters.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets are squaring off in a preseason game on Saturday in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, after the Nets topped the Lakers Thursday in Shanghai.

“We have decided not to hold media availability for our teams for the remainder of our trip in China,” a spokeswoman for the NBA said Friday.

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s tweet of support for Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing protesters triggered a backlash from Chinese companies and fans, leading to Thursday’s game not being aired or streamed in China. Local sponsors withdrew their backing for the NBA, and had their names scraped off the court as celebrity spectators stayed away. But ordinary fans -- some waving small Chinese flags -- filled Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena and the U.S. broadcast of the game went smoothly.

By allowing the game go forward Thursday, China signaled it may be winding down its harsh response to the tweet, which was inflamed by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver defending Morey’s right to free speech. There were other signs too: The New York Times reported that editors at state-run news outlets have told reporters to stop emphasizing the NBA issue, fearing that it might get overheated.

NBA Game Plan to Sidestep Controversy in China: Shut Up and Play

The NBA teams visiting China “have been placed into a complicated and unprecedented situation while abroad and we believe it would be unfair to ask them to address these matters in real time,” the NBA spokeswoman said in a statement Friday.

The Lakers and Nets are free to set their own media availability, ESPN reported, citing a league spokesman it didn’t identify.

Despite a robust Chinese league, there’s no substitute for the NBA, which has a decades-long track record of engagement with China, where it has some 500 million fans. The country’s Communist leadership is unlikely to try to ban the league permanently.

“Behind the curtain of government-led boycotts is a massive citizen fan base I believe will ultimately forgive the NBA because they don’t want their sports mixed with politics,” said Paul Swangard, who teaches sport brand strategy at the University of Oregon.

NBA Game Plan to Sidestep Controversy in China: Shut Up and Play

The Rockets played a second preseason game in Japan against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, where the controversy flared again. A publicist prevented Rockets players James Harden and Russell Westbrook from answering a question about China from CNN’s Christina Macfarlane after the game. The NBA later said the employee was out of line.

“We’ve apologized to Ms. Macfarlane as this was inconsistent with how the NBA conducts media events,” a league spokesman said in an email.

“It’s a tough situation,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said at a post-game media conference. “Adam Silver speaks for the NBA, I work for the NBA. I go with Adam. Commissioner Silver will do the right thing.”

Fans at the Shanghai game didn’t ignore Morey’s tweet, but they largely put it aside to focus on the action.

“Of course I put my country first and I love my country, but I also think coming to watch my favorite basketball players play is not in conflict with loving my country,” said a 22-year-old student and LeBron James fan who would give only his surname, Wu. He faulted Morey’s comments and said the executive should apologize.

“I am a little happy the game is on, but also a little conflicted,” said William Chen, 18, a student at Donghua University and a fan of the Nets’ Kyrie Irving, before the game. “Morey hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”

--With assistance from Chunying Zhang, Tongjian Dong and Michael Sin.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net;Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net;Allen Wan in Shanghai at awan3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.