Hailing from Baraboo, Wisconsin, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey was on  top of the world. By relying on statistical analysis and the true shooting percentage stat, he has built the Houston Rockets basketball team into an NBA powerhouse. They have made the playoffs every year since 2012, a feat only two other teams have accomplished in team history. Morey has made some of the biggest signings of all time by securing James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and many more players to long term deals.

The Houston Rockets have maintained their strong international presence created by the 2000s, and opened the door for the first Chinese star in the NBA by drafting Yao Ming in 2002. Now, James Harden is the 3rd highest selling jersey in China, where the NBA is the most popular sports league. According to Vox, more people watch NBA games in China than in the U.S. The NBA has built its reputation as a global league primarily through China as a touchpoint, creating hundreds of millions in revenue through merchandise sales and countless fans through Chinese NBA exhibition games. The economic and cultural stakes of the NBA’s relationship with China are no light burden. 

And then with a single tweet having nothing to do with basketball, Daryl Morey threatened to collapse the NBA’s massive commercial market in China. The owner of the very team that first struck superfandom in Chinese basketball fans hearts, became a major enemy of the Chinese corporations that air NBA games. He tweeted, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” While Morey may have tweeted with good intentions and used his American right to speak freely, China saw his tweet as a rebellion effort and insult to their country. China’s biggest airer of NBA games, Tencent, put all Rockets broadcasts on hold. Chinese fans were outraged by Morey’s comments and seeming insensitivity to China’s stake in the Hong Kong protests. The NBA sent out two statements, one apologizing to China for Morey’s “wrong” actions, and one acknolwedging the situation to the U.S. public. This did not go over smoothly, as both sides could read the other, and recognized the NBA trying to pander to sentiments to maintain a sense of peace (and keep their flow of profit). Morey has since removed his tweet, and kept quiet about the whole situation. 

This speaks to the larger trickiness present in U.S.-China trade in the age of social media. With a few words Morey probably didn’t think twice about, he threatened the balance of a billion dollar industry in which billions of people across the globe participate. Daryl Morey has found support from those who are unhappy about Chinese censorship’s power over American industries, which is exemplary of the American government’s current sentiments towards trade with China. 

This situation is unfortunate because the global commerce, sponsorship, and ambassadorial pursuits of the NBA have built up so much momentum in the past few years, and Morey’s tweet may set that progress back. Though this doesn’t drastically affect the trade war, upsetting the titanic corporation of Tencent does upset the hundreds of millions of viewers who lose out on NBA games and American corporations who stand to make huge profit on sponsorship deals. 

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