Daryl Moreys tweeted in Friday's "Fight for freedom. Back up Hong Kong ”to support the government-critical protests. A tweet he later deleted and apologized for.
In China, which is a huge market for the NBA, anger has been created and the Chinese Basketball Association has broken contact with the team and Chinese sponsors have withdrawn from the cooperation with the club.
- It is inevitable that people around the world - including people from America and China - will have different views on different issues. It's not the NBA's role to judge it. We do not apologize for Daryl using his right to express himself, but I am sorry that so many are upset, including several millions of our fans, says Adam Silver at a press conference in Japan, where the reigning champion Toronto Raptors plays some of his preseason matches .
The NBA also announces that it does not intend to interfere with people's personal opinions or silent people working in the organization.
- We do not apologize for Daryl's right to express himself. The basic values of the NBA are freedom of speech. Especially freedom of speech for people in the NBA circles, Silver says, and continues:
- The league will not put itself in a position where you regulate what players, employees and club owners say and do not say on these issues. We can't work that way, "says NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
The Chinese city of Shanghai hosts a preseason match between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets. But the controversy has now culminated in Chinese state television announcing that it will not broadcast any of this week's preseason games from the NBA.
"We are very unhappy with Silver's statement and oppose his way of supporting Morey's freedom of expression," CCTV, Chinese state television, said in a statement.
- My plan is for me to go to Shanghai tomorrow to attend the match. My hope is that I can get to a meeting to see where we stand somewhere, says Silver.