The controversy between the NBA and China continues to swirl as the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets prepare for a pair of exhibition games in the country.
In the latest development, the Lakers' NBA Cares event scheduled on Wednesday was canceled, per ESPN. According to the report, the decision to cancel the event, which was for the benefit of the Special Olympics, was not the NBA's call. A Nets NBA Cares event was also canceled earlier this week.
Furthermore, Los Angeles Times Lakers beat writer Tania Ganguli reports that Wednesday's media availability ahead of Thursday's planned preseason tilt was postponed:
Apologies. The league did not cancel availability, they said it was postponed. https://t.co/oXdnOgpa7y
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) October 9, 2019
The Lakers reportedly held practice in the country behind closed doors, as it disallowed media members from entering. There are some rumblings that these Lakers-Nets games will be canceled.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made his stand to defend Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's use of free speech to express his own opinions. While the league is apologetic over the aftermath of Morey's tweet about Hong Kong and the protests in favor of democracy, they maintained that they are not apologizing for one of their GM's exercising his freedom of expression.
Obviously, this has not sat well with China, which expressed its discontent with Silver for supporting Morey. The NBA has had quite a healthy and growing relationship with China over the past years, but that is in serious jeopardy right now, especially after Silver made his firm stance on the issue.
The NBA is currently feeling the backlash. How severe it will be, we will soon find out.
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