The National Basketball Association was set to have multiple preseason games played in China in preparation for the 2019-20 season. One of the teams that would be involved was the Houston Rockets. Before the Rockets were set to go to China to play, their general manager Daryl Morey sent out a tweet that read "Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong."
Morey's tweet was in reference to the protests that have been going on in Hong Kong for a few months that have seen hundreds of thousands of citizens in the streets protesting the government. However, China did not take the tweet well as partners affiliated with the National Basketball Association in China cut ties with them, broadcasts of the games were stopped, and the government said that the league needed to show them "mutual respect" (CNN).
All of the sudden the entire National Basketball Association backpedaled, even Morey himself offered an apology. But why would Morey have to apologize is the question. Morey simply offered his support to people being oppressed and it is his right to do so with free speech, but now he is offering apologies.
There is one reason for why the whole league started to back off support for Hong Kong: money. The television deal alone is worth around $1.5 billion, not to mention the advertisement revenue, merchandise sales, etc.
When China threatened to pull the plug over Morey's tweet the National Basketball Association realized that they could lose out on all of that money. That is most likely why Morey apologized, either because he knew the higher ups in the league would be angry at him for a long time if the deal fell through or the higher ups themselves contacted him telling him to back off.
Despite commissioner Adam Silver saying that the decision to apologize was not about the money, it definitely feels that if the NBA's deal with China was not so lucrative, there would be not as much of a backpedal that even included LeBron James saying that Morey was misinformed.
Overall, this situation is similar to what is going on with World Wrestling Entertainment and Saudi Arabia and their partnership, just with less significant backlash from employees.
Morey's free speech was unprotected here but there was not a lot he could do afterwards to protect it. If Morey stuck by it he would have had owners of every other team upset because he cost them millions of dollars in profits and he would have had the league in general upset and he would have cost his team money as well.
Morey could have said no and doubled down on his comments, but it could have costed him his job as general manager. That is not fair, but the owner would have had a right to do so since his general manager would have cost the team millions if he doubled down.
2nd source: https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-china-feud-timeline-daryl-morey-tweet-hong-kong-protests-2019-10#shaquille-shaq-oneal-publicly-defended-morey-on-october-22-19
China is a country that does not allow it's citizens free speech in the same capacity as the United States. China has many restrictions on the media it allows it's country to see. For instance one of my friends is a foreign exchange student from China. One of the reasons he prefers the United States as opposed to his home country is due to freedom of speech. This makes me realize how lucky we are to have free speech. Morey's tweet is an example of how our freedom of speech can abridge on the policies and opinions of people in other countries. The uncensored voices that have the power to reach the masses despite certain restrictions can threaten the national security of some countries. So with that mind we must remind ourselves that freedom of speech is not just about being able to say what you want. But being able to use words in ways to be inclusive and cut down on controversy. I think that Morey learned that even though his tweet had good intentions he could potentially jeopardize billions of dollars. Additionally the NBA and other national sports companies do not necessary allow freedom of speech. If they did then there would not be certain rules and regulations in place that govern the game and how its played.
ReplyDelete