NBA: league will support freedom of speech

(8 Oct 2019) NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league wasn't apologizing for Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's since-deleted tweet showing support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, even after China's state broadcaster cancelled plans to show a pair of pre-season games in that country later this week. Silver, speaking on Tuesday at a news conference in Tokyo before a pre-season game between the Rockets and NBA champion Toronto Raptors, went as far as to say that he and the league were "apologetic" that so many Chinese officials and fans were upset by Morey's tweet and comments that followed - but insisted that Morey had the right to freedom of expression. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said it would not show the games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, who will play Thursday in Shanghai and Saturday in Shenzhen. Basketball is wildly popular in China and those two teams - largely because of LeBron James starring for the Lakers and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's co-founder Joe Tsai now owning the Nets - would have almost certainly been a huge television draw. The broadcaster is also reviewing all its cooperation and exchanges involving the NBA, said the statement posted to CCTV Sports' official social media account. Silver is going to Shanghai on Wednesday and said he hoped to meet officials and some of the league's business partners there in an effort to find some sort of common ground. He said he hoped Chinese officials and fans looked at the totality of the impact of the three-decade-plus relationship between the league and their country, and urged them to see his response while acknowledging there are political differences between the countries. This rift between China and the NBA started late last week when Morey tweeted a now-deleted image that read "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong," in reference to months of pro-democracy demonstrations in the semiautonomous Chinese territory that has been mired in escalating violence between protesters and law enforcement. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...