The National Basketball Association (NBA) has a reputation for allowing players to speak out on issues of justice and discrimination. Some call it ‘the woke league’. However, when Houston Rockets’ GM Daryl Morey tweeted support for the Hong Kong democracy movement, his owner, some players, and his league, rebuked him and rejected his statement. Rockets player James Harden proclaimed love for China. After a bit of behind the scenes Chinese re-education, Morey, apologized that he ‘got woke’ for freedom, . Bill Whittle says the NBA reaction is the perfect epitaph for the USA tombstone.
BTW, hours after we recorded this episode, and after American politicians and commentators savaged the NBA response, Commissioner Adam Silver released a clarifying statement which included this: “…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.”
(…at least not if it hurts sales of tickets and apparel.)
5 replies on “USA Epitaph: NBA Sorry Rockets’ Daryl Morey ‘Got Woke’ for Hong Kong Freedom”
Since I am not a member of the Church of NBA, my opinion has no relevance to this matter. However,…
Richard M. Nixon was a starry-eyed, Pollyanna, pie-in-the-sky, sweet by and by, Neville Chamberlain, who thought he could bring “peace for our time” by appeasing a totalitarian, communist dictatorship. What he unleashed though, was an experiment that proved totalitarianism and commerce can live in perfect harmony. Totalitarianism and capitalism are NOT mutually exclusive! China has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that totalitarianism can coexist with capitalism. The ChiComs have successfully integrated “free market” capitalism under the guise of freedom, but still hold the boot of totalitarianism on the necks of the people. Communist dictators have shown that they can render people like cattle with a modicum of controlled liberty. And John Q Public is aiding and abetting ChiCom’s behavior.
Bill’s comment that congratulating the ChiComs on their 70th anniversary is not and endorsement is flat out wrong. Trump blinked and capitulated to the ChiCom’s celebration of COMMUNISM. His statement tacitly approved of communism and effectively threw HKers under the bus. There can be no compromise with an evil ideology such as communism (or any other ideology posing as religion).
Yes, life in China is “better” than when Mao slaughtered over 50 million of his own people, but he successfully brought the remainder under total submission. Now that the modern ChiComs have figured out how to indoctrinate people, they needed a way to conquer the world. Enter the NWO Fabian socialist elitists. Through Nixon, they successfully accelerated the integration of capitalism into totalitarianism which has now enabled the ChiComs to grow a humongous war machine that is bigger than America’s.
Bill, you use the word “ethics” as if it meant “morals”. Sorry, but you’re equivocating. Rudyard Kipling’s “Ballad of East and West” starts with “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” The same can be said for morals and ethics: “Oh, morals are morals, and ethics are ethics, and never the twain shall meet.” Morals are as far away from ethics as east is from west. Morals came from God and ethics come from men. Morals are universal absolutes and ethics are relative to fickle, fallible men. If an ethic comes from an organization that agrees with a moral, all is well and good. But communism is a moral issue and needs to be address as such and not as an ethical issue.
Did the NBA make Daryl Morey wear the dunce cap during his struggle session?
Mao jacket.
The epitome of irony that, Lebron James and James Hardin, (2 African-Americans) would sell their souls over an issue that regards the oppression of other human beings. I will never watch the NBA again, or until a commissioner with any semblance of testicular fortitude is at the helm.
The only thing I care less about than hurting the feelings of a China Nationalist is almost anything associated with Sports. My distaste for almost all sports, sports stars, and sports news is off the charts. If you care about them, its your problem and not mine so bug off.
Why define your values and judgments by the feeling of others? This makes you a slave to the weakest, most incomplete, and hypersensitive individual in your collective. Yet, this is what far too many people do.
How about BEING something definite rather than being a copy of a copy of a copy without end? Why is being something so scary to you that you are willing to abandon any value and any principle you hold for sake of placating the feelings of someone who will collapse at even a hint of disagreement? Is there a you in you that actually exists? If there is, I can’t see it.