The NBA earns hundreds of millions of dollars each year off the sale of basketball jerseys and memorabilia in Communist China and some allege because of this, it has been slow to criticize the human rights abuses in the communist regime. READ: Why the NBA’s defense of China is nothing new for American institutions
ESPN recently did an exposé on the NBA’s basketball camps that it held in the communist regime that exposed the glorious communist utopia for what it really is:
The NBA ran into myriad problems by opening one of the academies in Xinjiang, a police state in western China where more than a million Uighur Muslims are now held in barbed-wire camps. American coaches were frequently harassed and surveilled in Xinjiang, the sources said. One American coach was detained three times without cause; he and others were unable to obtain housing because of their status as foreigners.
A former league employee compared the atmosphere when he worked in Xinjiang to “World War II Germany.”
In an interview with ESPN about its findings, NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum, who oversees international operations, said the NBA is “reevaluating” and “considering other opportunities” for the academy program, which operates out of sports facilities run by the Chinese government. Last week, the league acknowledged for the first time it had closed the Xinjiang academy, but, when pressed, Tatum declined to say whether human rights were a factor. […]
The program, launched in 2016, is part of the NBA’s strategy to develop local players in a basketball-obsessed market that has made NBA China a $5 billion enterprise. Most of the former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared damaging their chances for future employment. NBA officials asked current and former employees not to speak with ESPN for this story. In an email to one former coach, a public relations official added: “Please don’t mention that you have been advised by the NBA not to respond.”
The NBA has since reversed its decision that disallowed ‘FREEHONGKONG’ to be printed on its jerseys. READ: NBA Bans Custom Jerseys With ‘FreeHongKong,’ But Allows ‘Burn Jews’ And ‘KillCops’
RELATED: NBA sold its soul to China over cash. All it cost was its moral high ground
OpentheWord.org 