• NBA Hypocrisy: Hate America, Love China

    October 13, 2019
    3
    The Hong Kong Protesters Are Going To Die, But The Chinese Communist Party Will Die Along With Them

    Greg Popovich and Steve Kerr, two prominent NBA coaches who made it in this country to achieve their great success, now apparently are delighted to defend the Communist dictatorship in China that abuses its citizens and places millions in concentration camps, but berate the United States with vicious and false rhetoric.

    Kerr seems to think that a lunatic killing people at a public location with an AR-15 is equivalent to what the Chinese government does to its people in the form of murder and torture and denial of human rights, policies that are nowhere to be found in American government policies. 

    His brilliance as a basketball coach is defied by his ignorance of the realities when comparing China to the United States. Does he even know that the President of China has a lifetime appointment to that position? Does that policy smack of democracy?

    And then there is Greg Popovich who says we should not judge other countries and their domestic policies. That should not be our concern but only our country should be our concern.

    What??? Should we make no judgements about the treatment of the people of China or North Korea or Iran or Yemen or Syria or Libya? That illogic is patently absurd. Making observations about the abject cruelty perpetrated against the people of these countries does not mean we intervene; it means we express definitive opposition to the tyrannical dictatorships in these countries.

    Even though NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has stated recently that he stands behind free speech on the part of executives in the NBA, he also issued an order that the NBA teams presently in China could not give interviews to the press. So goes the pablum from the leader of the NBA, protecting free speech but then placing a gag order on NBA players in China.

    So, what is behind this hypocrisy? Naturally money and power. Nike is the instigator and major influence on the NBA. Over 90% of basketball shoes sold in this country are the Nike brand, and, of course, Chinese exploited labor produces these shoes for the American market. As Nike goes, so goes the NBA. The league can ill afford to have Nike reduce or discontinue its financial support of the league.

    Of course, China is a huge market for the NBA. Merchandise sales there are massive and an important revenue stream for the league and its teams. How could they endorse telling the truth about the dehumanizing and brutal policies carried out by China against its own citizens, when China is the cash cow for the NBA.

    Money talks and nobody walks. That is the sellout of Popovich, Kerr and the entire NBA culture. While they criticize this country viciously, let them remember that the NBA would not even exist without the American people and capitalist system, and let them compare our record with that of Mao Tse-tung and the Communist Chinese dictatorship since 1949.

    Author

    Mike Siegal

    Mike Siegel’s real world experience as a public school teacher in Newark, New Jersey; Professor of Communication at Emerson College in Boston; Consultant to a Drug Rehabilitation Program in Boston; Communication Consultant to Business and Industry have given him a breadth and depth of experience that he brings to his programs.
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    Heretic

    I don't understand why these pro players hate America so much. In what other country could barely literate morons be paid millions of dollars to play a game intended for children?

    […] NBA Hypocrisy: Hate America, Love China […]

    Jo

    "Adam Silver has stated recently that he stands behind free speech on the part of executives in the NBA, he also issued an order that the NBA teams presently in China could not give interviews to the press." Your father is the father of lies.

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