China Syndrome: the NBA and Eastern Authoritarianism

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week we continue our season-long focus on sportswashing with a conversation centered on NBA business interests in China. Basketball exploded in the PRC upon native son Yao Ming’s arrival to the league as the first overall pick in the 2002 draft. Since then, the NBA has grown into China’s most popular sports brand and in return the league oversees a large piece in the operation of NBA China, valued in total at over $4 billion. This relationship is wildly controversial, and the circumstances of such form the crux of this discussion. Join us as we examine China’s authoritarian regime and the ongoing atrocities being committed; a pro-Hong Kong tweet from the phone of NBA GM Daryl Morey that upended the China/NBA relationship for nearly three years; the league’s response to the tweet and the bipartisan condemnation of said response from American politicians; LeBron James’ place in withholding criticism of Chinese oppression; and finally a consideration of whether this partnership of league and nation, however troubling, explicitly constitutes “sportswashing” when compared to Saudi-financed endeavors within professional golf and the English Premier League.