SHANGHAI/BEIJING • Thousands of Chinese fans cheered and clapped through an NBA exhibition game in Shanghai yesterday after days of controversy and online vitriol over a tweet by a team manager backing anti-China protests in Hong Kong.
The crowd waved Chinese flags in the arena before the game started, but the packed stands gave the players a huge welcome on court and shouted enthusiastically throughout the game.
The Brooklyn Nets won 114-111 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The now-deleted tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting anti-government protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong sparked a furore in China, with a fan event cancelled and Chinese partners cutting ties with the National Basketball Association (NBA).
"Most people are very rational today," one spectator said. "We all love basketball. But if NBA players or officials continue to make some of these wrong comments, we have no choice (but to protest)."
Some people protested outside the stadium against Mr Morey and NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who has spoken out in support of Mr Morey. One protester, who declined to be named, held up a small sign with expletives directed at Mr Morey and Mr Silver. "There are no Lakers or Nets fans tonight. We are all Chinese basketball fans," the protester said.
NBA events scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday were cancelled, and Chinese sponsors and partners have suspended or severed ties with the league.
State broadcaster CCTV and Tencent will not show yesterday's game or the rematch scheduled for tomorrow in Shenzhen on their platforms, underscoring the severity of the fallout.
The NBA said in an e-mail yesterday that players and personnel would not be made available to the media. The league had scheduled a briefing before and after the game, and Mr Silver had been expected to address the media.
The Hong Kong protests began in opposition to a Bill allowing extradition to mainland China but have since evolved into broader calls for democracy. China has accused the West of stirring up anti-Beijing sentiment in Hong Kong, and Chinese state media has characterised Mr Morey's tweet as the latest example of meddling in China's own affairs.
Mr Silver on Tuesday spoke out in support of Mr Morey's freedom of expression, further angering Beijing. The NBA's business in China, which took years to cultivate and is estimated to be worth more than US$4 billion (S$5.5 billion), is under immense pressure.
The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether tomorrow's Lakers-Nets game would take place.
Houston Rockets sneakers and other goods were pulled from some Nike and NBA stores in major Chinese cities, with the franchise's direct association with Mr Morey making it a central target of the furore.
Managers at some of the Nike stores said they had been instructed to remove the goods via an internal memo from management.
A specialist NBA store at a major shopping centre in Shanghai removed all Rockets merchandise, as did the basketball-themed NBA Playzone family entertainment centres in Beijing and Shanghai.
"Rockets products were hot before and when you stepped into the store, it was full of red. Now, it is mostly yellow and blue (the colours of the Golden State Warriors)," said a manager at the Shanghai Playzone who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Nike and the NBA did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Other major Chinese retailers, including Alibaba and JD.com, also pulled Rockets merchandise off their various platforms. Alibaba and JD.com declined to comment.
Chinese state and party-backed media continued to publish items critical of the NBA.
The official English China Daily published an editorial cartoon yesterday playing on the NBA's official logo of an athlete dribbling a basketball. The cartoon instead put a bomb labelled "politics" in the athlete's hand, leaving the basketball fallen by the wayside.
US sports broadcaster ESPN was also criticised for its coverage of the row after using a map that appeared to endorse Beijing's claims to both self-ruled Taiwan and disputed territories in the South China Sea.
