With slightly more than a day before game time in Shanghai, it’s looking unlikely the Nets and Lakers will play either of their preseason games in China. The question now is who pulls the plug: the NBA or China.
Overnight U.S. time, the NBA abruptly canceled its media availability for players; Shanghai officials dropped an NBA fan event planned for Wednesday night; the Education Ministry canceled an NBA Cares activity, this one involving the Lakers; the games’s sponsor, a Chinese cell phone company, backed out of its promotions; and in the most telling sign, across China’s largest city, banners and other promotional materials related to the first of the two games were being pulled down from buildings.
There’s been no official announcements, but there appears to be increasing concern about player security, particularly at the Mercedes-Benz Arena where the first of two preseasons games is scheduled to be played. The Shanghai game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Shanghai time Thursday, 7:30 a.m. New York time. A second game in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, is scheduled for Saturday.
Adam Silver was scheduled to arrive in Shanghai Wednesday hoping to salvage the games — and the NBA’s place in China, but rhetoric on both sides has intensified.
Before leaving Japan, Silver had again insisted that the NBA supports Rocket GM Daryl Morey’s right of free expression. It was Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong protests Friday night, U.S. time, that started the firestorm with China first assailing the Rockets, then escalating the issue to include the NBA in general. On Tuesday, CCTV and TenCent, who carry NBA games in China, said they had decided they would not broadcast the games.
At the same time, reports Tim Reynolds of AP, all around China, stores that sell NBA merchandise were removing Rockets-related apparel from shelves and many murals featuring the Rockets — even ones with Yao Ming — were being painted over.
The most telling sign was the cancellation of the NBA’s media availability. The press, mostly Chinese, had gathered for the event which was then canceled.
Joe Tsai, the Nets newly minted owner, spoke briefly to U.S. reporters on Tuesday, explaining his Facebook statement that tried to explain the Chinese side of the controversy but wound up being criticized for echoing Beijing’s characterization of the protests as a threat to the “territorial integrity of China” and the protesters as a “separatist movement.”
On Tuesday night, Tsai turned to praising his team. “The players got in late, so we had an open buffet kind of setting so they could just come in, grab some food and go to sleep,” Tsai told the Post’s Brian Lewis. “What I observed, the chemistry, the camaraderie around the team is incredible. They’re talking to each other, they seemed comfortable with each other, having fun.
“This is after a long, what, 16-hour flight? I would’ve been, ‘Forget it, I’m going to sleep.’ But they were hanging out. It’s important to have that chemistry, especially this early in the season. We’re more than half a new team. To see them — not just the original players, but the new guys — was [good].”
Should the games be postponed, it would be a blow to the Nets preparation for the coming season. Unless a game with another NBA team is added to the schedule, the Nets will play only two preseason games, Friday’s game vs. Basquete Franca of Brazil and then, on October 18, a contest against the defending champion Toronto Raptors at Barclays Center.