China’s state broadcaster CCTV, the main television distributor of the NBA in the country, and Tencent have halted plans to air the basketball league’s pre-season games, in a sharp escalation of a row sparked by a team official’s support for the Hong Kong protests.
Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted “stand with Hong Kong” on his Twitter account last Friday. The phrase echoed a slogan from demonstrations that have plunged the Asian financial hub into political crisis.
Amid angry calls for an apology from Chinese fans and state media, the Rockets’ commercial partners have suspended business dealings with the team, broadcasters said they would not air Rockets’ games and Alibaba’s Taobao, China’s largest ecommerce platform, halted sales of the team’s merchandise.