It didn't take long for Daryl Morey to find a new gig after he left the Houston Rockets this past offseason. After bouncing from the Rockets, Morey immediately landed the job of president of basketball operations with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The 48-year-old, however, just revealed that he recently had doubts on whether he would still be able to work in the NBA. This is because of the controversial Hong Kong tweet he sent prior to the start of the 2019-20 season:
“In the last 12 months, I had moments where I thought I might never work in the NBA again, for reasons I was willing to go down for,” Morey told Jackie MacMullan of ESPN while discussing his new role with the 76ers. “But I love working, I love what I do, and I didn't want that to happen.”
To recall, Daryl Morey expressed his support for Hong Kong's fight for democracy in a Twitter post. This drew a ton of backlash in China and cost the NBA a lot of money coming from the growing market in the Asian country.
The NBA and the Rockets distanced themselves from Morey's controversial tweet. The executive eventually deleted his post and apologized. The Rockets even considered if they were going to fire Morey. This became a hot issue in the NBA for quite a while, with the league facing financial losses as a result of Morey's expression of support for Hong Kong.
However, Morey is still “comfortable” with his decision to send the tweet. The longtime NBA executive apparently has ties to some Hong Kong residents from his time in business school, so he just felt he was doing what was right by expressing solidarity with them.
Daryl Morey does admit he was concerned about his family's well-being because of the backlash:
Even so, Morey never anticipated the vitriol his tweet generated. At one point, he said, based on intel provided to him, Morey had grave concerns regarding the safety of his wife and two children.
“I was actually really, really worried about that,” Morey said. He declined to elaborate on the specific threats. “Luckily I had [access to] different people who were assisting me with that and giving me advice on how to handle it,” he said. “Hopefully, I've been able to get where we have some level of safety.
“But I was extremely concerned. You don't want the second-most powerful government on Earth mad at you, if you can avoid it. In this case, I couldn't.”
Daryl Morey is now focused on bringing the Sixers back on track. He certainly did a good job in the offseason, adding more shooting by acquiring Danny Green and Seth Curry while getting rid of the horrible Al Horford contract. Morey is now navigating the James Harden trade situation, and we'll see if he has anything up his sleeve.
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