A tweet in support of a Hong Kong demo posted by an executive of a popular US basketball team team hit a Chinese protest and the NBA was driven into account. US politicians criticized the NBA severely, "putting profit over human rights". The NBA commissioner met in Saitama prefecture on the 8th, and talked about the idea of restoring relations with China.
The starting point is that Daryl Maury GM of “Houston Rockets”, which is also popular in China, tweeted images on the 4th that said, “Let's fight for freedom” and “Let's stand up with Hong Kong”.
On the other hand, the Chinese Basketball Association repelled it on the 6th as an unjust statement. The president of the association is a member of the National Political Commerce Council of China's national political advisory body, and is a popular player from the former Rockets, Mr. Zhao Ming (39). The Consulate General of China in Houston also announced that he had made a strict offer to Rockets on the same day. In addition, according to the US media, the Chinese IT giant “Tencent” with which NBA has a media partner relationship has announced a policy not to air the Rockets match.
For the NBA, China is the second largest market after the United States. Last year, 500 million Chinese watched NBA games even in one game. According to a research company affiliated with Tencent, the Chinese sports market is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan (approximately 45 trillion yen) in 2020.
Rockets responds to a strong Chinese reaction ...