‘The Losses Have Already Been Substantial.’ Adam Silver Addresses Fallout From the NBA-China Controversy

During the first TIME 100 Health Summit on Thursday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that he’s willing to deal with the business consequences of Daryl Morey’s Oct. 4 tweet supporting protesters in Hong Kong. The Houston Rockets general manager angered the Chinese government and caused Chinese sponsors to pull away from the NBA during two exhibition games there last week. Silver said the league is “not only willing” to cope with losses of millions in revenues, “but we are. The losses have already been substantial. Our games are not back on the air in China as we speak, and we’ll see what happens next.” “I don’t know where we go from here,” said Silver in his first U.S. interview about the league’s emerging conflict with China since he returned home from the country. “The financial consequences have been and may continue to be fairly dramatic.” The NBA commissioner appeared at the Time 100 Health Summit to talk about the NBA’s new mental health initiatives. But Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts, who conducted the interview with Silver, started off the discussion with questions about the heated conflict that has sparked worldwide headlines. Silver said that the media coverage of the NBA’s response to Morey’s tweet “frankly was confusing to me when I got home [from China]. Only because I had thought we’d taken a principled position. I thought we hadn’t so-...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Basketball HealthSummit19 mental health Source Type: news