Ted Cruz, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Demand NBA to Suspend China Activities Over Boycott

Washington (AFP) – A bipartisan set of US lawmakers urged the NBA on Wednesday to suspend all activities in China until Chinese firms and broadcasters end their boycott of the league and the Houston Rockets.

The open letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver came from eight US lawmakers as politically diverse as Ted Cruz of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, both from states with multiple NBA teams.

“You have more power to take a stand than most of the Chinese government’s targets and should have the courage and integrity to use it,” the letter said.

“It’s not unreasonable to expect American companies to put our fundamental democratic rights ahead of profit.”

The letter comes in the wake of a since-deleted tweet from Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

That prompted the Chinese government to end sponsorships for the team and league and drop planned NBA telecasts in China, huge NBA logos and banner being stripped off buildings a sign of the anger.

Elite school teacher known as ‘Mr Wonderful’ accused of heinous crimes against students

Bombshell New Photos Change the Story for Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel, Move Timeline Years Earlier

Trump Cabinet member scraps Obama-era gender identity housing rule, cites ‘biological reality’

Prominent UFO Researcher Dies in Colorado

ICE nabs illegal aliens convicted of child sex crimes and meth trafficking in nationwide enforcement sweep

‘Storage Wars’ Star Darrell ‘The Gambler’ Sheets Found Dead in His Home

Former AG Tells CNN’s Tapper: VA Supreme Court Likely to Invalidate Redistricting Referendum, Possibly 7-0

Todd Blanche targets record denaturalizations in citizenship fraud crackdown

RFK Jr. Blasts Canada’s ‘Abhorrent’ Assisted Suicide Laws: US Can’t Be ‘Moral Society’ by Embracing Them

‘Lame duck’: Jeffries rips DeSantis after Florida invitation as redistricting fight heats up

Transgender Arrested for Allegedly Kidnapping Child and Taking Him Overseas for Gender Surgery

Dems jockeying for Newsom endorsement give passing grades on issue that ignited ‘poop map’ crisis

Conservative nonprofit investigates Virginia redistricting vote after court blocks certification

Trump: US doesn’t know who ‘the leader is in Iran’

20,000 teddy bear display on National Mall: ‘Bring Ukrainian children’ home

After early NBA statements were seen as overly capitulating, Silver said, “I understand there are consequences from … his freedom of speech. We will have to live with those consequences. As a league, we’re not willing to compromise those values.”

The full cost might not be known for months, with the NBA having made lucrative deals to a nation of 1.4 billion that loves basketball. But the lawmakers demanded values win over profits.

“Equivocating when profits are at stake is a betrayal of fundamental American values,” the lawmakers wrote. “That you have more potential fans in China than in Hong Kong is no excuse for bending over backwards to express ‘sensitivity’ only to one side.”

Lawmakers urged Silver to take four steps to harden the NBA’s stance against China’s retaliatory moves, most notably shutting down NBA activities in China, where two pre-season exhibition games were slated to be played.

“The NBA should have anticipated the challenges of doing business in a country run by a repressive single party government, including by being prepared to stand in strong defense of the freedom of expression of its employees, players, and affiliates across the globe,” the lawmakers wrote.

They also pushed for an end to punishments to the Rockets, saying the NBA must be united against “future efforts by Chinese government-controlled entities to single out individual teams, players, or associates for boycotts or selective treatment.”