{"id":467931,"date":"2021-05-03T16:20:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T20:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=467931"},"modified":"2021-05-03T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T20:20:43","slug":"nba-commissioner-on-chummy-ties-to-china-we-have-to-build-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nba-commissioner-on-chummy-ties-to-china-we-have-to-build-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Commissioner On Chummy Ties To China: \u2018We Have To Build Relationships\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnba-commissioner-on-chummy-ties-to-china-we-have-to-build-relationships%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=467931&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/AdamSilver.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/collection\/time100-companies\/5953664\/nba\/\">TIME magazine<\/a>, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver excused the league\u2019s chummy relationship with the government of Communist China, saying, \u201cWe think exporting NBA basketball to China and to virtually every country in the world continues to fit within our mission,\u201d adding, \u201cI do think that in order to bring about realistic change, we have to build relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>TIME asked Silver, \u201cWhat\u2019s the state of the NBA\u2019s relationship with China?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c<\/strong>We continue to televise our games in China,\u201d Silver answered. \u201cOur most significant television partner is Tencent, which is a streaming service in China. And we have hundreds of millions of fans in China who we continue to serve. I\u2019ll take a step back there and restate the NBA\u2019s mission, which is to improve people\u2019s lives through the game of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bobby Burack of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/nba-china-adam-silver\/\">Outkick<\/a> commented, \u201cSilver says it\u2019s the NBA\u2019s \u2018mission to improve people\u2019s lives through the game of basketball.\u2019 Really? The NBA is so concerned with improving lives that its top players are cashing checks from two Chinese sneaker companies, Li-Ning and Anta, that proudly profit from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/star-nba-players-cash-checks-from-chinese-sneaker-companies-proudly-using-slave-labor\/\">Muslim slave labor<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Silver continued, \u201cAnd we think exporting NBA basketball to China and to virtually every country in the world continues to fit within our mission. The political science major in me believes that engagement is better than isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat a so-called boycott of China, taking into account legitimate criticisms of the Chinese system, won\u2019t further the agenda of those who seek to bring about global change,\u201d Silver stated. \u201cWorking with Chinese solely on NBA basketball has been a net plus for building relationships between two superpowers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if his perspective was too \u201cPollyannaish,\u201d Silver replied,<strong>\u201c<\/strong>I don\u2019t want to overstate it. While I\u2019m a believer in soft power, I\u2019m certainly not sitting here claiming that by virtue of televising NBA games in China lo and behold, there\u2019ll be a reckoning in China to adopt a Western point of view about human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think that in order to bring about realistic change, we have to build relationships,\u201d he insisted. \u201cAt the end of the day we\u2019re all human beings. And while there are many differences between our society and Chinese society, there are enormous commonalities as well. One of them is to love a sport. And basketball happens to be the most popular team sport in China right now. We think that through that common love and appreciation of the game of basketball, that that\u2019s a way to bring people together. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>TIME wondered about Silver\u2019s reaction to critics who note that the NBA\u2019s players voiced their opinions vociferously regarding Black Lives Matter issues and police violence, but remained silent vis-\u00e0-vis China.<\/p>\n<p>Silver said weakly, \u201cMy response there is that we and our players speak about issues that are closest to home. Our players have the absolute freedom to speak off the floor about any issue they want. I think it was a unique set of circumstances that led us to talk about Black Lives Matter over the course of last summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In October 2019, while pro-freedom activists demonstrated in Hong Kong, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online\">tweeted<\/a>, \u201cFight For Freedom Stand With Hong Kong.\u201d That prompted the Communist Chinese government to sever ties with the Rockets, and the NBA\u2019s Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass to release the following <a href=\"https:\/\/pr.nba.com\/nba-statement\/\">statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"10\">\n<p><em>We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.\u00a0 While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals\u2019 educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.\u00a0 We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking with TIME magazine, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver excused the league\u2019s chummy relationship with the government of Communist China, saying, \u201cWe think exporting NBA basketball to China and to virtually &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277233,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/AdamSilver.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"NBA Commissioner On Chummy Ties To China: \u2018We Have To Build Relationships\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/AdamSilver.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"NBA Commissioner On Chummy Ties To China: \u2018We Have To Build Relationships\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}