EDITORIAL
>> An NBA preseason game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets took place Thursday in Shanghai. And there will be the same poster on Saturday in another Chinese city, all in a context of tension between the basketball league and China, following a tweet from the manager of Houston Rockets in support of protesters Hong Kong. For our sports editorialist Virginie Phulpin, the NBA should not have accepted to play these matches.
"I was trying to illustrate the expression" sell your soul to the devil. "Yesterday, the Nets defeated the Lakers in Shanghai, but the story is elsewhere ... In the stands, where many fans wore the jersey. LeBron James but where they all waved Chinese flags that were specifically put in their hands.We do not laugh with the patriotism in China.The players were banned from press conference.And the police were everywhere.In addition to Chinese TV did not broadcast the match, broadcast canceled for crime of freedom of expression.
Beijing piques its crisis, after the tweet of the manager of Houston Rockets in support of the protesters of Hong-Kong. China wants an official apology, and it shows the extent of the trade retaliation it can draw. All the Chinese sponsors of the NBA clubs have suspended their contracts.
What to crawl some, NBA. The owner of the Houston Rockets: "Our manager does not speak on behalf of the club, we are there to play basketball, not to play politics". The star of the team, James Harden: "We apologize, we love China". It's no longer the Houston Rockets, but the Houston Rugs.
There is no official apology, of course. But the boss of the NBA has still cracked a pathetic phrase: "Sorry, but we can not censor the words of everyone." Yes Fortunately. And all that, that's not enough to calm Beijing? So why play these games? The NBA lacks a little courage.
It must be said that it could cost them a lot
One billion dollars per season. It makes you think. The Chinese market will represent 20% of the NBA budget in 10 years. The American League of Basketball is not an NGO, it must protect its interests. But here she is ready to sacrifice everything on the altar of business. Several politicians in the United States have called for the cancellation of matches. It can not be just a market, the NBA. His story is marked by political positions. Players who commit to civil rights, for example. So to see the goat and the Chinese cabbage, to erase the first amendment of the American constitution on freedom of expression. And who told us that Chinese fans were not expecting more resistance, precisely because they can not do it? "