Welcome to Part I of The Tweet Heard 'Round the World. In this first part, I look into the actual tweet, the repercussions of Morey's opinion, and what Lebron thinks his responsibility is towards fellow players. Read Part II to get the rest of the story!
Part I
October, 4th, 2019. 7:41 pm Eastern Time (US). Houston Rocket GM Daryl Morey decides to send a tweet that says: "Fight For Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong", showing his support for the protestors in China, which doesn't sound like a bad thing or a big deal. But it was and is to the NBA and the Republic of China.
The biggest NBA-supportive country would probably be the United States of America. But the clear second is China, whose people are hugs fans, especially of the Rockets, since Yao Ming spent his career there.
But that one tweet caused the Chinese government to not show either of the preseason games that took place in their country, and took off all logos and brandings in the stadium and throughout the city.
Lebron James and the Lakers flew from Los Angeles to China, on October 7th just three days after the tweet. It was 15 hours with no connection to the outside world. So when they landed, they had no idea about the escalation of the situation.
Around the time they landed in Shanghai, Adam Silver tweeted in defense of Morey's 'freedoms of expression', which, as you can imagine, did not exactly help ease tension.
"The long held values of the NBA are to support freedom of expression, and certainly freedoms of expression by the NBA community, and in this case Daryl Morey as the General Manager of the Houston Rockets enjoys that right as one of our employees."
By the time the Lakers got to their hotel, the NBA Cares event was canceled, as was the teams' welcome reception. The second NBA Cares event was canceled shortly afterwards.
The Lakers only managed 30 minutes of practice before they were interrupted by workers who were sanding down the court to remove all logos on the court, since all those sponsors had withdrawn.
And it wasn't just NBA deals that were canceled. Most of the players on the Nets and Lakers had paid appearances scheduled, which were canceled, as well as one player's $1 million endorsement deal. That is $7M dollars lost between the players and the NBA. That might not seem like a lot to people who also see the money the players make, but that's $7 million they'll never get back.
During a lunch break at the hotel, the players got the pleasure to watch all the banners advertising the coming of the NBA stars and the two games get taken down.
"Everything was getting canceled right before things were [supposed to be] happening," James said. "Everything was getting canceled."
The pressure was so intense that Adam Silver, NBA commissioner moved up the NBA's meeting with the Lakers and Nets an hour and a half.
The meeting went from a welcome greeting to a 'make-or-break moment for the China Games'.
Adam Silver asked the players to talk to the media and try to smooth the issue over, and to become 'ambassadors of the sport'. But Lebron had a few questions. He knew if a player did something like this, there would be quite a big punishment, and he wondered if there would be any consequences for Daryl Morey.
Silver said that while he didn't like what Morey's tweet caused, he would still defend the right to freedom of speech, and that players weren't disciplined when they criticized Donald Trump.
But Lebron, speaking to the room, asked why this should fall on the players shoulders, and why weren't Morey or Silver answering questions? Lebron also said that it was too much for the players to handle, 'to explain a complicated issue with racial, socioeconomic and geopolitical layers while visitors in China.'
"It's always a responsibility with me as far as players, a protection for the players," James said Monday. "That's always [on my mind]. I never speak for just me, things that just benefit me. I try to be educated as much as I can and speak from a pure heart of how can I protect not only me, but protect the players as well in that situation."
Even though China was pretty much acting as if the games weren't happening, the players decided to continue anyways.
"We were there just to play," Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said Monday. "Even if the fans didn't show up or they did show up, we still had to play a basketball game. That was our mindset."
And the fans, however upset they were, still showed up. While the stadium wasn't full, it was still a good showing.
After the second game, the teams drove straight to the airport, but couldn't take off due to a tropical storm. Some Laker employees joked how even the weather was under the Chinese governments control. That's the kind of joke you look back on years later and regret.
And on that cheerful note, the Lakers and Nets headed home.
Read Part II to get the rest of the story, including Lebron’s reaction.
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