Whose Team Are You On?

I stopped trying to maintain a separate sports blog some time ago.   Keeping a weekly blog on other topics was enough, I thought.  But over the last several weeks, I find myself drifting into the topic again, especially that sports has found itself at the intersection of politics and economics.

I’m talking about the N.B.A.

Last week, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, a favorite N.B.A. team in China tweeted out a fairly innocuous message, “Fight for Freedom.  Stand with Hong Kong.”

In an earlier era, had someone transmitted that message about the Hungarians in 1956, the Czechs in 1968, or any country of the former Eastern Bloc in 1989, the country would have closed ranks around him and similar messages would have cropped up all over.

But this is globalist, multicultural, progressive America 2019, and the social justice warriors have taught us that America is an evil an oppressive force in the world, or so Steve Kerr, Stephan Curry and Gregg Popovich tell us.

Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morley, quickly deleted his tweet, and offered an apology for having offending the Xi regime worth of any statement ever given by a hostage, “I did not intent my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event.  I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives.”

Daryl, it’s not complicated. It’s not complicated at all.

Our eyes have been opened.  They have been opened to the hypocrisy of all of you, that wore “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” t-shirts protesting an incident in which those words were never uttered, and you blathered on about free speech in support of Colin Kaepernick.  But now, as Chinese police quell the breath of freedom in Hong Kong with truncheons and tear gas, suddenly you are mute and apologetic.

Kerr is perhaps the worst of the woke N.B.A., lashing out at Trump, muttering about AR-15s, and mumbling about human rights abuses in the U.S., while his Chinese puppeteers put people in re-education camps and beat and jail protesters.  None of that happens here.

The N.B.A.’s partner in this, Nike (famously ditching the Betsy Ross sneakers last summer) rushed to remove Houston Rockets gear from Chinese stores because they were “offensive” to the Chinese authorities.  The N.B.A. then complied and ordered their players to refrain from press conferences.

The face of the N.B.A., LeBron James claimed that the GM of the Rockets was “misinformed” on China.  I’ll bet the Chinese might even have a spot open for Daryl Morey in one of their re-education camps.  Did LeBron think Xi was kidding when he said that any attempt to divide China would result in “crushed bodies and shattered bones?”

I note with irony that Jamestown, the first colony in what would become the U.S., the colonists endured incredible risks, hardship and starvation to gain their liberty.    In the new James world of the LeBron type, liberty is deeply subordinated to personal profit.

I fixed my Nike golf shirt this summer by having a Betsy Ross flag sewn over the swoosh emblem.  I will not watch another N.B.A. on T.V. or attend one in person, even if the tickets are free. 

And I have a simple message for dolts like Lebron, Kerr, Curry and Popovich.  The most important thing you need to know about team sports is which team you play for. 

You’ve chosen.