Daryl Morey's 2019 tweet supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong created very serious tension between the NBA and China. Joe Tsai, who became the primary owner of the Brooklyn Nets less than a month before Morey's tweet, allegedly tried to get involved.

According to ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, people close to Morey believe that Tsai was trying to get Morey fired from his job as the general manager of the Houston Rockets. The league and the Nets both deny it.

Within two months of taking control of the Nets, Tsai inserted himself into the controversy. Morey's supporters believed Tsai was pushing the NBA to fire Morey and offer a full-throated apology, part of a behind-the-scenes drama that reached the White House and has not been previously disclosed. Tsai also published an open letter that accused Morey, inaccurately, of “supporting a separatist movement.”

Both the Nets and the NBA denied that Tsai tried to get Morey fired or that he pushed the NBA to apologize.

ESPN also writes that the Nets refunded Morey for the purchase of a suite for a game in Brooklyn against the Rockets. Morey believes that the act was meant to disinvite him.

Tsai, a co-founder of the Chinese company Alibaba, has been supportive of China, even in the face of atrocities against the Muslim Uyghur population, while supporting social justice movements in the United States. The Nets owner also failed to live up to his promise of delivering paychecks to Barclays Center employees during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Morey's tweet greatly impacted the NBA financially and the tweet still has ripple effects. While Tsai and Morey may not clash one-on-one, their teams might. Morey now runs the Philadelphia 76ers, who could see the Nets in the postseason.