Collaborators

In February, CNN Money wrote

Just two months into his new job he was forced to navigate a major controversy, issuing a lifetime ban against then-Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was caught on tape making racist comments.

Two years after that, Silver denounced the state of North Carolina's controversial transgender bathroom law and pulled the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte.

Those decisions have become hallmarks of Silver's tenure, and their impact is still being felt.

Many people believed that Silver forced Sterling to sell primarily because of a dedication to civil rights, while a few of us thought that the commissioner was making a business decision, bowing to the wishes of superstars (most of them black), who could make life very difficult for Silver if they wished.

Silvers' motivation there was debatable. But here, it is not:

The National Basketball Association (NBA) came under fire on Monday for its response to a tweet by a Houston Rockets official in support of Hong Kong protests for democracy, the latest overseas business to run afoul of political issues in China.

The Rockets’ general manager, Daryl Morey, apologized on Monday for the tweet he swiftly deleted on the weekend, but his support for the protests in the Chinese-ruled city angered Beijing, Chinese fans and the team’s partners in a key NBA market..

The"Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong" remark was deleted and the Rockets' owner cowardly tweeted Morey “does NOT speak for the” franchise, adding "we “we are NOT a political organization. The NBA then released a statement reading

We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.

If it had any decency, the NBA would have pulled out of mainland China once reliable reports surfaced of the network of concentration camps Beijing established for the mostly-Muslim, Turkish-speaking Uighurs, concentrated in the totalitarian state's Xinjiang region.. Instead, the Butchers of Beijing have become a major cash cow for the league, and its profits stand to soar as it stands hand-in-hand with one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

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