New York (AFP)
The NBA accuses "substantial" losses after the crisis with China born of a tweet in support of protesters in Hong Kong posted by a leader of the Houston Rockets, said Thursday the boss of the league Adam Silver.
"The financial consequences are quite dramatic and could continue to be," said the head of the North American league at a health convention organized in New York by Time magazine, without however specify the extent .
Chinese companies have suspended their sponsorship as well as the NBA broadcast rights negotiations following the tweet of Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in favor of the Hong Kong protesters.
"The losses are already substantial," said Adam. "Our matches are still not being broadcast in China as we speak and we will see what happens," he said.
He also revealed that Chinese government officials and business leaders have called for the dismissal of Daryl Morey.
"We said there was no reason for it to happen, or even to punish it," Silver said.
At the beginning of the crisis, the NBA had said in a statement to be "deeply disappointed by the inappropriate remarks" of the leader of the Rockets. But the institution, lambasted by US officials for these words seeming to be right in Beijing, then said, through the voice of Adam Silver, she would not apologize and continue to support "freedom of expression" .
"We said we regret having upset our fans (but) at the same time we were supporting Daryl Morey's freedom of speech, his right to tweet, maybe I tried to be too diplomatic", he added.
"These regrets were not addressed to the Chinese government but to our fans, our hundreds of millions of fans in China," he said.
© 2019 AFP