Rozner: NBA's stance on China speaks volumes

Daryl Morey did not know what he was doing.

This has to be the narrative.

It has to be that way for the NBA. It has to be that way for Adam Silver. It has to be that way for the Houston Rockets.

It has to be that way if you sell your soul to the devil. It has to be that way if you bow to a brutally repressive and intolerant regime in order to collect revenue in the billions.

It has to be that way if you're caught between two very American philosophies.

Those would be turning a profit and protecting free speech, the latter of which gets tossed out with the bath water if at all it threatens the former.

And, wow, did the NBA ever empty the tub on this one.

If you're unfamiliar with this story, it began when Rockets GM Morey tweeted support last weekend for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, those taking to the streets demanding promised freedoms, including speech and assembly, not to mention liberty from police brutality.

The furious response from China after the tweet was immediate, putting at risk a very profitable relationship with the NBA.

The Rockets stomped all over Morey. Several NBA owners decried his decision to step into politics. The NBA issued a statement calling it "regrettable."

In other words, the league encourages you to have a conscience and be an activist if it doesn't cost the NBA money.

The problem with the NBA statement was it didn't appease China and had the added benefit of such extraordinary hypocrisy that there was bipartisan pushback from Washington.

The NBA suddenly stifling free speech was a gut punch, especially when an American was supporting those protesting against a merciless communist government.

Seriously, bipartisan agreement in Washington. That's some mean feat there, Mr. Commissioner.

That forced Silver to clarify his position.

"It is inevitable that people around the world - including from America and China - will have different viewpoints over different issues," read Silver's statement. "It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences.

"However, the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way."

This satisfied no one. It was two days late and several billion dollars short, Silver dancing a tightrope, 100 stories in the air and wearing size 14 combat boots.

Thing is, the NBA long ago climbed into bed with China, as have so many American companies and athletes.

China opens its considerable and profitable markets and in return Western companies look the other way at horrific human rights violations.

This isn't new. It's just that the NBA got called on it.

There was a time - 20 or 30 years ago - when the hope was free trade would move China toward a more democratic institution, but in the last 10 years China has become even more authoritarian.

So what does a business do?

They back down. They quietly apologize. They kowtow.

Major U.S. brands, aware there could be tripwires anywhere, say nothing or walk softly, sacrificing all else in order to do business in China.

As a stockholder, what would you want them to do?

Nike, which famously supported Colin Kaepernick and made billions off that decision, has sold $6 billion worth of merchandise in China this fiscal year.

Think Nike is going to publicly offer the same support to those wanting freedom in Hong Kong, or cry out for the million Muslims imprisoned in Chinese gulags?

Nope, Reuters reports that Nike pulled all of its Houston Rockets merchandise from their stores in China.

Like the NBA, Nike's in favor of free speech when it's convenient, but activism stops at the dollar's edge.

Nike - and so many of its most famous and wealthy players who have shoe contracts tied to China - is the champion of the oppressed.

Until money is on the line. Now, only silence.

On Thursday, the Chinese prohibited Silver, the Lakers and the Nets from holding news conferences before or after a game in Shanghai. Again, the NBA swallowed it.

One can imagine Adam Silver as Hyman Roth, saying, "This … is the business we've chosen."

The price you pay as a corporation for angering China is a loss of market access and billions in revenue, while the price an American company pays back home for sleeping with the enigmatic is a bad week on social media.

The story will go away and companies know it.

Rockets ownership, a team with very strong ties in China, said it's complicated. Actually, it's not, but Morey has since tried to apologize and take it back, that he says he didn't fully understand the situation.

You are free to wonder if that's really true.

Maybe Morey knew exactly what he was doing when he voiced support for the protesters, knowing there would be more attention paid to the conflagration in the sports world than at any time since it began.

Maybe his single purpose - at perhaps significant cost to his own career - was forcing the NBA's enormous worldwide audience into a discussion of Hong Kong and China.

Whether it was intentional or not, Daryl Morey succeeded in doing precisely that.