On Oct. 7th, Darel Morey, the GM of the Houston Rockets, posted a picture on twitter containing messages supporting the protesters in Hong Kong. In response, China national radio and television stations (here in referred to as CCTV) soon responded to Morey’s statement by prohibiting any games involving the Houston Rockets from broad casting. The range of the ban expanded to the association as whole soon after NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, announced his support for Morey by saying “There have already been fairly dramatic consequences from that tweet, and I have read some of the media suggesting that we are not supporting Daryl Morey, but in fact we have."

This affair is about to put an end to the harmonious partnership between China and NBA. It’s quite ironic considering that the partnership between China and NBA, which took former commissioner David Stern more than 30 years to establish, has been ruined in only three      days by Morey and Silver’s , indiscreet words. If the imbroglio is to be quelled Chinese officials have made it clear that they will not accept any statements except for apologies coming from Silver, who seemingly has no intention of doing that at all.

While Morey and Silver have the right to voice their opinions, from a public relations and economic standpoint, their actions are selfish and imprudent     .

Why is that?

First of all, the NBA is losing the biggest overseas market. China makes up over 10%,which roughly equals to 1.2 billion dollars, of the annual income of the league, coming    mainly from the sale of sponsorships and television broadcast rights. That one tweet could lead to such a financial loss for the league, regardless of the individual politics of either Morey or Silver, is myopic They should be thinking of growing their brand rather than angering their marketplace.            

Many supporters rallied to Morey’s side, claiming he is rightfully exercising his freedom of speech. However, being a public figure, Morey should not only consider the potential affects of his statements to his own situation, but to others as well. As now it appears, his words are affecting the life of many others. For instance, the cooperation between Brooklyn Nets and a primary school which was planning to build infrastructure was canceled by the government, which means, kids lost their opportunities to enjoy better facilities.Moreover, as conclusively all the Chinese companies draw back their sponsor ships, athletes who signed with those companies will suffer financial lost  .And most importantly, as estimated by one expert in the league, the salary cap for the next season will decrease approximately 3million dollars. Since the salary cap is tightly linked to the salary of the player, all the athletes who play in the league will suffer finical lost and that is not fair.  Players, especially young players who have just entered or about to enter the league will earn less c and perhaps are now facing with less opportunity to make a a name for themselves because of the loss of Chinese market.[3]  Unlike Morey and Silver, who have already made a name for themselves, there are still many people who wish to success through the league and now their vested interest are damaged because of these two men’s ill advised speech.

Another chief reason why Morey and Silver handled this poorly is that they underestimate      the Chinese audience’s aversion to such statements, which reflects their ignorance of China. As Owner of the Brooklyn Nyts Cai has explained comprehensively that due to various historic causes Chines citizens are extremely sensitive to any statement considering Hong Kong issues  Just like the U.S. would balk at any challenge to its national sovereignty, China does not allow others to question the sovereignty of its nation. For many Chinese people, loyalty to the Chinese regime is something they hold close to their heart, and thus take offense at non-Chinese peoples' ignorance of that. For them, it's akin to racism. Sterling and Morey may think they're just expressing their opinion, but they're unwittingly insulting many Chinese people.

 Furthermore, if you recall how irritated American was when they first discovered Clippers former owner Donald Sterling's racist remarks, and how timely Silver reacted to that  , it’s no wonder why Chinese people are so furious about Silver’s words and consider him holding two utterly different standards managing these quiet “similar”  things.

Indeed, as China and America continue to be intertwined economically, conflicts have appeared, for example, world-famous companies such as Nike, Tiffancy, and Mercedes Benz have been involved in similar confrontation with China. That’s because much of the two countries’ current interaction is based on mutual self-interest. But because the two nations have such divergent cultures and social values, there is the risk of misunderstanding creating the types of situations unfolding currently with the NBA. But I still believe that the common interests will always outweigh our differences. Like in this situation, our love to basketball is the same, regardless of the color of our skin and what type of ideology we hold. Political disagreement shouldn’t be something preventing us from showing our love of basketball as a pure sport. Morey words now endangered the Chinese peoples' ability to engage with a sport they love while spontaneously damaging the interest of their own players.