NBA’s China problem gets worse
Irving, Butler among stars tied to companies allegedly fixed to slave labor
(Photos: The images of Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler came from UniqueRenders.com. Thompson comes from CleanPNG.com.)
The NBA is no better than Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, and Sally Kornbluth.
Instead of failing to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews as the respective presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania (Magill resigned Saturday), and MIT did before a U.S. House committee this week, the NBA justifies its relationship with the horrible Chinese Communist Party.
In disrespecting the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, the NBA states it is “mindful of the circumstances in the countries where we operate.” Right, they’re just disinterested in China’s despicable behavior.
The Congressional Executive Committee on China (CECC) must flex its muscle, issue subpoenas, and make threats without bluffs to one of the most-recognized sports brands in the world. Get help from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
The NBA wants it both ways: to profit off Chinese money, while being able to say they “condemn use of forced labor.” The NBA can’t lust for Chinese money and then condemn slave labor.
CECC co-chairmen U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon wrote a letter to C.J. McCollum, National Basketball Players Association president, near the start of the NBA season.
In seeking answers to questions, Smith and Merkley informed McCollum the panel questioned Enes Kanter Freedom. Kanter was known for his social activism against the NBA’s relationship with China, the CCP’s genocide against Uyghur Muslims, and NBA stars with commercial ties to China. Kanter has been frozen out of the NBA since the 2021-2022 season. The lawmakers wrote: “Just one day after NBA veteran Enes Kanter Freedom testified before our bipartisan and bicameral Commission that the NBPA pressured him to stop his criticism of the PRC’s horrific human rights abuses, we learned that NBA basketball player Kyrie Irving signed a new shoe deal with Chinese sportswear company ANTA—a brand linked to the forced labor of Uyghur, Kazakh, and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the XUAR.”
The XUAR is the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, home of the Chinese genocide of Uyghurs and slave labor camps.
After the NBA’s embarrassment from Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong truth bomb in 2019 (Sporting News traced the controversy and the consequences from it. Morey praised Hong Kong’s freedom movement), it is plausible the NBA made Kanter expandable to please the ChiComms.
In late November, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum responded to the CECC. The NBA brass feels lectured by the U.S. Congress about China’s multitude of evils. Multiple sources did not share Tatum's letter.
Tatum wrote, according to ESPN, the NBA is “mindful of the circumstances in the countries where we operate.”
The league added, ‘We recognize that there are individuals and organizations who may, through first-hand experience or otherwise, have different views on matters relating to China.’
Tatum also wrote that the NBA does not control what players or league and team personnel can say about China and added that anyone connected to the ‘NBA family’ is free to speak their mind. ‘Any assertion to the contrary is not accurate,’ Tatum wrote.
Except Kanter Freedom. He speaks up about China’s grotesque human rights abuses and he becomes public enemy No. 1. The NBA allows him to disappear.
Irving, who Nike dropped after Kanye West comments, was picked up by Chinese gear company ANTA. Irving is now ANTA’s chief creative officer as a guard for the Dallas Mavericks. It is not unusual for players to be paid more from endorsement deals than their player contracts. If some websites are accurate about NBA player endorsements with Chinese shoe companies, more than 50 NBA players are connected to four companies with alleged ties to slave labor.
Scroll down the pages for ANTA, Peak, Li-Ning, and 361 Degrees.
Meanwhile, ESPN and Kanter first exposed players connected to China Jan. 28, 2022. At that time, they were:
Precious Achiuwa
Jimmy Butler
Alex Caruso
Hamidou Diallo
Spencer Dinwiddie
Aaron Gordon
R.J. Hampton
Udonis Haslem
Gordon Hayward
Kevon Looney
Terance Mann
C.J. McCollum
D’Angelo Russell
Klay Thompson
Fred VanVleet
Andrew Wiggins
Lou Wiliams
The U.S. prevents imports from forced labor. Brands such as Nike and Adidas claim their products comply with the new law. Nike and Adidas provide shoes, jerseys, warmups, and other gear across multiple professional and college sports. Throw in the Chinese brands in the NBA, and the NBA’s sweating hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy. When they brag about the cheap cost for Chinese-made shoes, slave labor allows that to happen.
Former President Ronald Reagan used the phrase “trust, but verify” in his nuclear weapons talks with the Soviets. The same rule must apply to the NBA’s connections to China.
Compel the NBA to explain themselves and demand proof, under oath.
