Thus Morey stepped over the line. He is free to leave the rockets and as a private citizen express his views. Lets be real, if he is no longer GM of a popular franchise is he relevant? Does his views matter? I would have been super impressed if Rockets and Fertitta had decided to end ITS relationship with China until they sorted out its human right issues. Pretty sad what they have done in Nepal and what they do to those that practice Muslim beliefs IN PEACE.
Personally I think Fertitta has grounds to fire Morey. Not on moral grounds but his actions are detrimental to the healthy of the Rockets organization. He'll have to honor Morey's contract unless there is language in it.
Sports is an entertainment business. Nalod is pragmatic. China was in its rights and thinks justified in ending its relationship with the Rockets.

BTW, Im not a Chinese gov't sympathizer. Not a fan on their human rights practices, their treatment of citizens inside their borders is awful. THey are brutal to Buddhists and those that practice peacefully their Muslim beliefs. Nalod does not agree with many things but I tolerate and respect others rights to practice its beliefs PEACEFULLY. A founding principle in the formation of our country.

martin wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1181213147446820865

For all its economic advances China is still a totalitarian government.
Someone is the promoter for the game. There was a contract to bring two teams to China to play a game. Curious who gets stuck with the bill.

arkrud wrote:

Nalod wrote:

martin wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1181213147446820865

For all its economic advances China is still a totalitarian government.
Someone is the promoter for the game. There was a contract to bring two teams to China to play a game. Curious who gets stuck with the bill.

I understand from were you are coming from. You are businessman and losing money because of speaking out (even if one speaks truth) is not a good business.
My question is what you believe decent person have to choose money of values?
I agree that it will be better if he will never tweet this. Better for business.
But after he did now it is about others - us, NBA, Rockets... America. which side we will take.
Side of the China totalitarianism and American profits or side of people who against oppression and disregard to human rights.
NBA choose profits. I do not care if China will not see NBA teams playing. To me they do not deserve it.
It is all for then to lose. We can lose only money and we have enough. Especially NBA teams.

Pretty sure Morey is a smart enough guy that even though he needed to “retract” knew what he was posting and the ramifications

The NBA nor the Rockets don’t give a flying fudge about the trash China treats their citizens like. Maybe Morey does but if that gets in the way of billions of dollars, firing him wont even be thought about. They’ll just do it. Their
Explanation will continue to be “We don’t have political affiliations.”

China looks just as bad.

Nalod wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:100% money. Everything you see is done for money. Even the charity events are done for money. They want the league to look like a bunch of good guys so people feel better about watching them or spending money on them.

The NBA nor the Rockets don’t give a flying fudge about the trash China treats their citizens like. Maybe Morey does but if that gets in the way of billions of dollars, firing him wont even be thought about. They’ll just do it. Their
Explanation will continue to be “We don’t have political affiliations.”

China looks just as bad.

The NBA cares about its players and its fans. “Shut up and play” was an ugly statement to African Americans and the fans of that demographic. The Kneeling issue divided the NFL as it did not stand behind its players.

HOw many Chinese players are outraged the NBA does business in china? How many Chinese American fans are appalled by the NBA doing business there? We are talking about Morey making a statement about the Hong Kong issue. NOT what they are doing to Buddhists, to Peaceful Muslims etc.
Nobody is boycotting Chinese goods, Chinese olympics, etc. Remember when South Africa was boycotted because of its apartheid? We not even close to that.

I don’t think the NBA said “They don’t care”, they said they are basketball league that plays basketball and is not political. Right now we cage immigrant children and turn back people dying in other countries? We are a waring nation that turns its back on allies. Should us teams playing in Europe be judged by the actions of a government that does these things?

What is the point you are trying to make? This is borderline flight of ideas.

Nalod wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:100% money. Everything you see is done for money. Even the charity events are done for money. They want the league to look like a bunch of good guys so people feel better about watching them or spending money on them.

The NBA nor the Rockets don’t give a flying fudge about the trash China treats their citizens like. Maybe Morey does but if that gets in the way of billions of dollars, firing him wont even be thought about. They’ll just do it. Their
Explanation will continue to be “We don’t have political affiliations.”

China looks just as bad.

The NBA cares about its players and its fans. “Shut up and play” was an ugly statement to African Americans and the fans of that demographic. The Kneeling issue divided the NFL as it did not stand behind its players.

HOw many Chinese players are outraged the NBA does business in china? How many Chinese American fans are appalled by the NBA doing business there? We are talking about Morey making a statement about the Hong Kong issue. NOT what they are doing to Buddhists, to Peaceful Muslims etc.
Nobody is boycotting Chinese goods, Chinese olympics, etc. Remember when South Africa was boycotted because of its apartheid? We not even close to that.

I don’t think the NBA said “They don’t care”, they said they are basketball league that plays basketball and is not political. Right now we cage immigrant children and turn back people dying in other countries? We are a waring nation that turns its back on allies. Should us teams playing in Europe be judged by the actions of a government that does these things?

Lets say China or people in other countries will blame us for our blunders and polices (or absence of such). And they constantly do and `sometimes rightfully so.
Do we respond with outrage and countermeasures? We as a country or people will never even blink.
We allow all people of the world and any countries state any opinion about America and Americans.
We respect freedom of others but China does not respect our freedoms. Period.
So let them go kick rocks.
NBA by the way retracted their position and now talking about their support for freedom of speech with some vague condition of:

Silver says it would be appropriate for people involved with the league “to be sensitive” to different cultures when tweeting or communicating.

Nalod wrote:

nykshaknbake wrote:

Nalod wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:100% money. Everything you see is done for money. Even the charity events are done for money. They want the league to look like a bunch of good guys so people feel better about watching them or spending money on them.

The NBA nor the Rockets don’t give a flying fudge about the trash China treats their citizens like. Maybe Morey does but if that gets in the way of billions of dollars, firing him wont even be thought about. They’ll just do it. Their
Explanation will continue to be “We don’t have political affiliations.”

China looks just as bad.

The NBA cares about its players and its fans. “Shut up and play” was an ugly statement to African Americans and the fans of that demographic. The Kneeling issue divided the NFL as it did not stand behind its players.

HOw many Chinese players are outraged the NBA does business in china? How many Chinese American fans are appalled by the NBA doing business there? We are talking about Morey making a statement about the Hong Kong issue. NOT what they are doing to Buddhists, to Peaceful Muslims etc.
Nobody is boycotting Chinese goods, Chinese olympics, etc. Remember when South Africa was boycotted because of its apartheid? We not even close to that.

I don’t think the NBA said “They don’t care”, they said they are basketball league that plays basketball and is not political. Right now we cage immigrant children and turn back people dying in other countries? We are a waring nation that turns its back on allies. Should us teams playing in Europe be judged by the actions of a government that does these things?

What is the point you are trying to make? This is borderline flight of ideas.

NBA cares about its players and its fans. Because of moral goodness? No, its good business.
Im paraphrasing here: "Do I care how the Chinese gov't behaves on its citizens"?
Ted Cruz tells us we be upset NBA said "we are not political"?
Did Morey offend the people of china or its gov't?
We love to point fingers so its easy to point to the NBA and say "Wow, you really sucked up to the Chinese gov't, shame on you"! Where is Ted Cruz on lax gun laws that are killing our children? Cages on immigrant detainees?
NBA owners are billionaires that employ a high % of black players and what redneck ignorant republican is gonna take sides on a "daggone entitled black multimillionaire"!!!! That's my point!
Personally If IM Fertitta the thought of firing Morey would have crossed my mind. He used this public persona as the GM of the highest profile NBA team in China as his personal platform to express his ideas. Im being very pragmatic here. Im not opposed to Morey's position. This is a discussion about pro sports and Profits. The NBA does not profit from Chinas human rights violations. WE not talking blood diamonds from South Africa. If we that outraged we should stop buying Chinese manufactured goods from over worked factory employees!
NBA as an American business profits from selling basketball viewership to China. TO be critical of the NBA you have to say we should not be exporting to china. We don't.

Morey's job is to construct a roster of basketball players to win games which increases revenue thru increased viewership. The Rockets due to Yao Ming's employment became a visable force for the NBA. Morey is a public figure who because of what he does. His personal views conflicted with his duties. If he is that conflicted by this he is free to quit his job and use that event as a platform to bring notice to the confict. He would be sacrificing. His choice. I would respect that a lot. Few athletes have done this. Boxing great Muhammad Ali sacrificed for his values. Michael Jordan might be very philanthropic toward social and political issues. If so he is private about it. His choice. He choosed to not use his fame as a platform. Lebron has and has not faced much backlash from the younger fans who he is marketed to. Magic Johnson has not been overly political. Bird has is private. Jabbar is very outspoken. Bill Russell in a different era used success as a platform to elevate his values. Red Auerbach and the Celtics were instrumental creating that environment. That was in America and we have our own internal debate. The issue we discuss is china.

What do we actually have here? A white executive who is employed by a mostly black-player dominated NBA that just kowtowed to the Chinese government in reaction to his imparting AN OPINION. The shortness of memories here is stunningly amazing. Noah refuses a dinner with the militaristic war machine that is the US Army, and all the right things are said about "conscience" and "values" and "freedom of expression". Nothing doing about the fact he's pissing on his own multimillion dollar food bowl that a bunch of "kids" go fight and die for. At what amounts to minimum wage + benefits. Anyone GAF if the US Army doesn't like the NBA?

Maybe Morey would have been vilified as well for putting flowers in the muzzles of tanks at Tianmen Square? Go forth and explain the difference between those protesters and this Hong Kong contingent. Probably because they must have ties to the Orange Cheetoh, right?

I love this "**** on America and all these redneck ignorant republicans", and everything's fine. Dare to piss on a foreign totalitarian regime's bull**** strongarm tactics, and back off, because you're pissing in the food bowl. Whine about caged infants. Scream at the wall. Fuck the NRA up the wazoo. Do you give a **** about the millions of infants that get aborted and killed in China simply because they're the wrong sex? Oh wait, that's good for business. Boys buy more NBA marketed stuff.

Being critical doesn't mean you automatically need to hold hostages until Cheetoh enacts boycotts on top of tariffs. This is America. Even an NBA exec should be able to tweet an opinion ABOUT WHAT'S OBVIOUSLY RIGHT without wondering about his checkbook. Or everyone else's.

Values. Or. Money. Interesting that there's a debate.

jrodmc wrote:

Nalod wrote:

nykshaknbake wrote:

Nalod wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:100% money. Everything you see is done for money. Even the charity events are done for money. They want the league to look like a bunch of good guys so people feel better about watching them or spending money on them.

The NBA nor the Rockets don’t give a flying fudge about the trash China treats their citizens like. Maybe Morey does but if that gets in the way of billions of dollars, firing him wont even be thought about. They’ll just do it. Their
Explanation will continue to be “We don’t have political affiliations.”

China looks just as bad.

The NBA cares about its players and its fans. “Shut up and play” was an ugly statement to African Americans and the fans of that demographic. The Kneeling issue divided the NFL as it did not stand behind its players.

HOw many Chinese players are outraged the NBA does business in china? How many Chinese American fans are appalled by the NBA doing business there? We are talking about Morey making a statement about the Hong Kong issue. NOT what they are doing to Buddhists, to Peaceful Muslims etc.
Nobody is boycotting Chinese goods, Chinese olympics, etc. Remember when South Africa was boycotted because of its apartheid? We not even close to that.

I don’t think the NBA said “They don’t care”, they said they are basketball league that plays basketball and is not political. Right now we cage immigrant children and turn back people dying in other countries? We are a waring nation that turns its back on allies. Should us teams playing in Europe be judged by the actions of a government that does these things?

What is the point you are trying to make? This is borderline flight of ideas.

NBA cares about its players and its fans. Because of moral goodness? No, its good business.
Im paraphrasing here: "Do I care how the Chinese gov't behaves on its citizens"?
Ted Cruz tells us we be upset NBA said "we are not political"?
Did Morey offend the people of china or its gov't?
We love to point fingers so its easy to point to the NBA and say "Wow, you really sucked up to the Chinese gov't, shame on you"! Where is Ted Cruz on lax gun laws that are killing our children? Cages on immigrant detainees?
NBA owners are billionaires that employ a high % of black players and what redneck ignorant republican is gonna take sides on a "daggone entitled black multimillionaire"!!!! That's my point!
Personally If IM Fertitta the thought of firing Morey would have crossed my mind. He used this public persona as the GM of the highest profile NBA team in China as his personal platform to express his ideas. Im being very pragmatic here. Im not opposed to Morey's position. This is a discussion about pro sports and Profits. The NBA does not profit from Chinas human rights violations. WE not talking blood diamonds from South Africa. If we that outraged we should stop buying Chinese manufactured goods from over worked factory employees!
NBA as an American business profits from selling basketball viewership to China. TO be critical of the NBA you have to say we should not be exporting to china. We don't.

Morey's job is to construct a roster of basketball players to win games which increases revenue thru increased viewership. The Rockets due to Yao Ming's employment became a visable force for the NBA. Morey is a public figure who because of what he does. His personal views conflicted with his duties. If he is that conflicted by this he is free to quit his job and use that event as a platform to bring notice to the confict. He would be sacrificing. His choice. I would respect that a lot. Few athletes have done this. Boxing great Muhammad Ali sacrificed for his values. Michael Jordan might be very philanthropic toward social and political issues. If so he is private about it. His choice. He choosed to not use his fame as a platform. Lebron has and has not faced much backlash from the younger fans who he is marketed to. Magic Johnson has not been overly political. Bird has is private. Jabbar is very outspoken. Bill Russell in a different era used success as a platform to elevate his values. Red Auerbach and the Celtics were instrumental creating that environment. That was in America and we have our own internal debate. The issue we discuss is china.

I love Nalod. But borderline flight of ideas (except when it applies to posts on reinman) is an apt assessment most of the time. His intelligent insights get lost in his 60's stream-of-consciousness style.

What do we actually have here? A white executive who is employed by a mostly black-player dominated NBA that just kowtowed to the Chinese government in reaction to his imparting AN OPINION. The shortness of memories here is stunningly amazing. Noah refuses a dinner with the militaristic war machine that is the US Army, and all the right things are said about "conscience" and "values" and "freedom of expression". Nothing doing about the fact he's pissing on his own multimillion dollar food bowl that a bunch of "kids" go fight and die for. At what amounts to minimum wage + benefits. Anyone GAF if the US Army doesn't like the NBA?

Maybe Morey would have been vilified as well for putting flowers in the muzzles of tanks at Tianmen Square? Go forth and explain the difference between those protesters and this Hong Kong contingent. Probably because they must have ties to the Orange Cheetoh, right?

I love this "**** on America and all these redneck ignorant republicans", and everything's fine. Dare to piss on a foreign totalitarian regime's bull**** strongarm tactics, and back off, because you're pissing in the food bowl. Whine about caged infants. Scream at the wall. Fuck the NRA up the wazoo. Do you give a **** about the millions of infants that get aborted and killed in China simply because they're the wrong sex? Oh wait, that's good for business. Boys buy more NBA marketed stuff.

Being critical doesn't mean you automatically need to hold hostages until Cheetoh enacts boycotts on top of tariffs. This is America. Even an NBA exec should be able to tweet an opinion ABOUT WHAT'S OBVIOUSLY RIGHT without wondering about his checkbook. Or everyone else's.

Values. Or. Money. Interesting that there's a debate.

I agree with most of what you said. Yes, we "Should" be able to express a view without retribution. But we live in a world where outrage against private Chick-Fil-A is a bit anti gay in its Christian values and people will boycott against yummy chicken sandwiches. others will run and buy more Yumminess because they are closed on Sunday's and express anti gay views. My stance, they are a private company and the owner can donate his money as he wishes. If you don't want to support them then don't. Y

As for what is right or wrong perhaps using our Judeo-Christian values as the moral compass is the only guide posts might be a bit subjective? Some places its legal to end the life of your daughter or wife if she bought shame to you. Throw a gay man off a building because he is gay. Should we be selling basketball games to people like this?

Nalod wrote:

jrodmc wrote:

Nalod wrote:

nykshaknbake wrote:

Nalod wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:100% money. Everything you see is done for money. Even the charity events are done for money. They want the league to look like a bunch of good guys so people feel better about watching them or spending money on them.

The NBA nor the Rockets don’t give a flying fudge about the trash China treats their citizens like. Maybe Morey does but if that gets in the way of billions of dollars, firing him wont even be thought about. They’ll just do it. Their
Explanation will continue to be “We don’t have political affiliations.”

China looks just as bad.

The NBA cares about its players and its fans. “Shut up and play” was an ugly statement to African Americans and the fans of that demographic. The Kneeling issue divided the NFL as it did not stand behind its players.

HOw many Chinese players are outraged the NBA does business in china? How many Chinese American fans are appalled by the NBA doing business there? We are talking about Morey making a statement about the Hong Kong issue. NOT what they are doing to Buddhists, to Peaceful Muslims etc.
Nobody is boycotting Chinese goods, Chinese olympics, etc. Remember when South Africa was boycotted because of its apartheid? We not even close to that.

I don’t think the NBA said “They don’t care”, they said they are basketball league that plays basketball and is not political. Right now we cage immigrant children and turn back people dying in other countries? We are a waring nation that turns its back on allies. Should us teams playing in Europe be judged by the actions of a government that does these things?

What is the point you are trying to make? This is borderline flight of ideas.

NBA cares about its players and its fans. Because of moral goodness? No, its good business.
Im paraphrasing here: "Do I care how the Chinese gov't behaves on its citizens"?
Ted Cruz tells us we be upset NBA said "we are not political"?
Did Morey offend the people of china or its gov't?
We love to point fingers so its easy to point to the NBA and say "Wow, you really sucked up to the Chinese gov't, shame on you"! Where is Ted Cruz on lax gun laws that are killing our children? Cages on immigrant detainees?
NBA owners are billionaires that employ a high % of black players and what redneck ignorant republican is gonna take sides on a "daggone entitled black multimillionaire"!!!! That's my point!
Personally If IM Fertitta the thought of firing Morey would have crossed my mind. He used this public persona as the GM of the highest profile NBA team in China as his personal platform to express his ideas. Im being very pragmatic here. Im not opposed to Morey's position. This is a discussion about pro sports and Profits. The NBA does not profit from Chinas human rights violations. WE not talking blood diamonds from South Africa. If we that outraged we should stop buying Chinese manufactured goods from over worked factory employees!
NBA as an American business profits from selling basketball viewership to China. TO be critical of the NBA you have to say we should not be exporting to china. We don't.

Morey's job is to construct a roster of basketball players to win games which increases revenue thru increased viewership. The Rockets due to Yao Ming's employment became a visable force for the NBA. Morey is a public figure who because of what he does. His personal views conflicted with his duties. If he is that conflicted by this he is free to quit his job and use that event as a platform to bring notice to the confict. He would be sacrificing. His choice. I would respect that a lot. Few athletes have done this. Boxing great Muhammad Ali sacrificed for his values. Michael Jordan might be very philanthropic toward social and political issues. If so he is private about it. His choice. He choosed to not use his fame as a platform. Lebron has and has not faced much backlash from the younger fans who he is marketed to. Magic Johnson has not been overly political. Bird has is private. Jabbar is very outspoken. Bill Russell in a different era used success as a platform to elevate his values. Red Auerbach and the Celtics were instrumental creating that environment. That was in America and we have our own internal debate. The issue we discuss is china.

I love Nalod. But borderline flight of ideas (except when it applies to posts on reinman) is an apt assessment most of the time. His intelligent insights get lost in his 60's stream-of-consciousness style.

What do we actually have here? A white executive who is employed by a mostly black-player dominated NBA that just kowtowed to the Chinese government in reaction to his imparting AN OPINION. The shortness of memories here is stunningly amazing. Noah refuses a dinner with the militaristic war machine that is the US Army, and all the right things are said about "conscience" and "values" and "freedom of expression". Nothing doing about the fact he's pissing on his own multimillion dollar food bowl that a bunch of "kids" go fight and die for. At what amounts to minimum wage + benefits. Anyone GAF if the US Army doesn't like the NBA?

Maybe Morey would have been vilified as well for putting flowers in the muzzles of tanks at Tianmen Square? Go forth and explain the difference between those protesters and this Hong Kong contingent. Probably because they must have ties to the Orange Cheetoh, right?

I love this "**** on America and all these redneck ignorant republicans", and everything's fine. Dare to piss on a foreign totalitarian regime's bull**** strongarm tactics, and back off, because you're pissing in the food bowl. Whine about caged infants. Scream at the wall. Fuck the NRA up the wazoo. Do you give a **** about the millions of infants that get aborted and killed in China simply because they're the wrong sex? Oh wait, that's good for business. Boys buy more NBA marketed stuff.

Being critical doesn't mean you automatically need to hold hostages until Cheetoh enacts boycotts on top of tariffs. This is America. Even an NBA exec should be able to tweet an opinion ABOUT WHAT'S OBVIOUSLY RIGHT without wondering about his checkbook. Or everyone else's.

Values. Or. Money. Interesting that there's a debate.

I agree with most of what you said. Yes, we "Should" be able to express a view without retribution. But we live in a world where outrage against private Chick-Fil-A is a bit anti gay in its Christian values and people will boycott against yummy chicken sandwiches. others will run and buy more Yumminess because they are closed on Sunday's and express anti gay views. My stance, they are a private company and the owner can donate his money as he wishes. The Company is not anti anyting. If you don't want to support them then don't. But the voices get louder.

If it was a publicly owned company there are a certain amount of rules.

As for what is right or wrong perhaps using our Judeo-Christian values as the moral compass is the only guide posts might be a bit subjective? Some places its legal to end the life of your daughter or wife if she bought shame to you. Throw a gay man off a building because he is gay. Should we be selling basketball games to people like this?

There are currently only 4 overtly Christian publicly traded companies in the US, and they barely represent half a blip on a tick's arse as far as the market is concerned. So if I follow your 'certain rules' logic correctly, it's money, THEN values.

Nietzsche held that values were nothing more than "rules" for the weak herd to hold back the super strong and deserving individuals. arkud's here making points about the pending return to the dark ages if nothing is done to destroy the existing "empires". The voices sure do get louder. And if they get loud enough in a single tweet, they get deleted. Interesting how that works, isn't it?

My whole point is if we're asking the "or values" question in the first place, money has already shown there is no debate.

Chick Fil A served pro-gay boycotters and protesters outside their stores. Some store employees even went and bought food and water at some other stores so not to obviously have the protesters seem to be promoting the brand they disagree with.
"But outrage". There are Chic Fil A's all over New Jersey. Most of them look like they're giving away free cash, except on Sundays. How many fast food places need to open THREE drive thru lanes at the same time? Or have people lined up inside like their waiting to ride the latest Avengers ride at DisneyWorld? Outrage from some may be loud, but the others buying the Yummies talk louder. Again, even if you're on the "right" side of the 'right and wrong' questions, money still talks.

This country has the absolute distinction of having been founded on the Judeo-Christian ethic, like it or not. We live with a certain amount of responsibility for that, since we open the doors (and the walls) for people to come here (legally, anyway). If there is no transcendent "right or wrong" then there is just might/capital makes right. So don't question the lines. Just toe them. And shut up. And fold your bills carefully.

The Communist Party's official newspaper, People's Daily, said in a commentary that Morey touched China's bottom line: "Morey's position is hurtful to Chinese basketball fans and is also an affront to the Chinese people." The newspaper also noted that multinational corporations who likewise tested the line on Hong Kong have "paid a heavy price."