Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - After an 18-month blackout, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league's return to China's CCT...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - After an 18-month blackout, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league's return to China's CCTV was a positive step and that sports engagement is culturally beneficial.
In October of this year, the NBA's decades-long relationship with CCTV was shattered when Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets at the time, tweeted in favor of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong over a contentious extradition bill.
China retaliated by turning off NBA games until late March, when they were reintroduced.
At a press conference ahead of Game One of the NBA Finals, Silver said, "I think engagement is positive, particularly through sports." "It's crucial to use athletics as a platform to keep people talking all across the world." At the same time, I don't believe it contradicts our beliefs for our game to be shown in China and more than 200 other nations across the world."
The NBA, which is one of the most prominent cultural exports from the United States in China, has lost "hundreds of millions" of dollars as a result of the blackout, according to Silver, who also stated that the league supports its players' and team executives' right to free expression.
"Since then, others have spoken up about their beliefs in China and other parts of the world, and we embrace the repercussions if it means we're taken off the air or lose money," he said.
He went on to say that lawmakers in the United States who are critical of the NBA's economic ties with China seek to single out the league.
"Virtually every Fortune 100 corporation does business in China from a policy standpoint. China and the United States have a massive commercial connection. "Almost all of the phones in this room, as well as the clothes and shoes you're wearing, are made in China," he remarked. "From a broader societal perspective, we must look to the United States government for guidance."
"And if people now say we shouldn't have trade links with China, which I don't believe they are, that's a tremendous global issue on which we will follow our government's lead."
