Even the lefties at Deadspin sports blog get it right once in a while. Dustin Foote’s Tuesday Deadspin blog exposed the NBA for its silence on China at a time when Canada is calling for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be removed from the genocidal communist nation. While the big mouths of the NBA are usually flapping about social justice and systemic racism, they are Velcro-lipped on and protecting their revenue sources in China.
Earlier this week, Canada’s House of Commons voted 266-0 to accuse China of committing genocide on more than a million Uighurs in its Xinjiang province. Canada’s far Left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who recently allowed Chinese troops to train up in the Great White North, and his cabinet abstained from the vote.
Foote points out that human rights groups, Uighur activists, the United Nations, and others have provided credible reports that China is forcing Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities into indoctrination camps. Canada’s Parliament called for the International Olympic Committee to take away the 2022 Olympic games from Beijing.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump called out China for genocide, but the Biden Administration is slowly reviewing the situation. Biden recently excused China’s oppressive regime as a cultural norm, though he labeled it “genocide” last August.
Foote confirmed the NBA’s shameful reputation for putting profit over principle with regards to the brutal Chinese communists.:
“Despite the NBA’s stance on social and racial justice, the league continues to have a lucrative alliance with China even after Daryl Morey’s tweet and subsequent geopolitical controversy in the fall of 2019.
“Since then, American athlete’s have been vocal over legitimate concerns of racism, sexism, and homophobia in sports and society. But will sports figures, Winter Olympic athletes in particular, start speaking out about the human rights violations in China?”
Morey was the Houston Rockets’ general manager in 2019 when he tweeted support for Hong Kong citizens seeking freedom from their Chinese oppressors. China’s government demanded the NBA fire him (it did not do so), and then refused to allow the televising of NBA games in its country that season.
LeBron James, who never passes up an opportunity to complain about racism in the United States, including the ridiculous claim that African Americans are hunted by police in their own country, criticized Morey instead of China.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban did speak about China during an interview with Megyn Kelly last October – in a shameful way. She pushed him to “condemn the genocide that’s going on right now in China.”
Focusing on the bottom line, the almighty dollar, Cuban responded that China is “a customer of ours. And guess what, Megyn? I’m okay with doing business with China. You know, I wish I could solve all the world’s problems, Megyn. I’m sure you do too. But we can’t. And so we have to pick our battles.”
The NBA isn’t shy about removing loud-mouthed American “customers” from its games, but those Chinese customers abusing human rights are skating as the NBA looks the other way.
After nailing the NBA for appeasing China to keep its lucrative revenue stream flowing, Foote says there’s a bigger question here. “Will more governments join Canada and call to relocate the 2022 Winter Games? Or will they turn a blind eye to China’s human-rights abuses?”
