This is going to hit the NBA where it hurts...in the pocketbook.
Vice President Pence kept the focus on the NBA in a speech last night and he should be commended. The Vice President called the NBA a subsidiary of communist China and the organization has undoubtedly behaved like it.
In just the past 48 hours, more NBA plays and coaches have dodged the issue in Hong Kong and a camera man at an NBA game jerked the camera out of the view of a child when the child held up a shirt in support of Hong Kong.
The unwillingness of the NBA to speak with a clear voice on the human rights abuses of China because of its profits is appalling and the Vice President is right to speak up about it.
“In siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech, the NBA is acting like a wholly owned subsidiary of the authoritarian regime,” Pence said during remarks on U.S.-China relations at the Wilson Center in Washington. “Some of the NBA’s biggest players and owners, who routinely exercise their freedom to criticize this country, lose their voices when it comes to the freedom and rights of other peoples.”
The Vice President also criticized Nike for removing Houston Rockets branded products from its stores in China.