Opinion | Money or moral high ground? NBA’s China crisis shows it can’t have both – Adam Silver has to pick a side in a game he might not win
- League has a reputation for being more socially aware than its peers and backing athletes such as LeBron James in speaking out
- Ongoing fallout from Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet is a watershed moment but stance may have come too late
While the tweet was subsequently deleted and Morey backtracked, that has not proved enough for China. The NBA initially released a statement on Monday outlining their position.
The trouble was that the Chinese statement, posted on the league’s official Weibo account, did not match the language of the English. By the time the NBA released another statement on Tuesday – ahead of Silver’s press conference in Tokyo – stating that the English was the one that counted, it was too late.
Anyone who has done business in China will be aware that when it comes to bilingual contracts, it is the Chinese version that prevails. It appears, whether the NBA like it or not, that the Chinese statement has prevailed in this case.
It is admirable that their latest statement tries to stand its ground in mounting pressure but they are finding out they cannot play it both ways.
