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This shouldn't be surprising to people. The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/china-s-500-m

This shouldn't be surprising to people. The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/china-s-500-million-nba-fans-face-loyalty-test-in-standoff https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/china-s-5...

koheripbal 6y ago
The business value for a nation of fans = (Number of fans) x (avg profitability per fan) x (probability of losing fan over political decision) I would argue that while US fans are more profitable in aggregate (first two terms) the reason the NBA sides with China is due to the 3rd term. Chinese fans are vastly more sensitive to perceived "anti-Chinese" policies, whereas most US fans don't care one way or the other. Therefor the NBA's position is very predictable. If you want the NBA to care, you have to convince US NBA fans that this political stance is worth not spending money on. Good luck with that because the NBA fans I know, don't care at all.
- RealStickman_ 6y ago
  I'd argue that the chinese fans might not be the problem. Their government would be since they can just ban the NBA for their "anti-Chinese" stance.
stepstop 6y ago
> This shouldn't be surprising to people. The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. I disagree. The size of the fanbase is surprising, and so is the implication of this behaviour
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  Agreed. I had no idea that the NBA of all things was beholden to the Chinese market already.
  - riffraff 6y ago
    The memes making fun of the NBA kowtowing to the CCP have been circulating since last year, IIRC. It's a sad state of things.
    - runevault 6y ago
      and REALLY took off after the Rockets GM publicly tweeted out against China earlier this year, while the rest of the league ripped into him including LeBron (despite LeBron trying to play up the more than an athlete idea about himself).
- Seasonwreckage 6y ago
  Just for visuals, this is like Mercedes barring Jewish people from buying their cars to please to Hitler and the the broader market. Of course we know who was on the right side of history.
- classified 6y ago
  It's what you get when the leading factor determining your values is profit. The NBA doesn't have American values, it has Capitalist values.
bassman9000 6y ago
Which is why millionaire players and coaches are absolutely mute (or are muted) on any China issue, or claim that the issue is complicated. I think it's healthy to remind people, from time to time, how Hollywod (e.g. Tencent), the NBA, and other American institutions have sold themselves to CCP money.
- amznthrwaway 6y ago
  I understand that many racists want it to be morally wrong to do business with China, but I don't believe it's that simple. Americans who've never even visited China feel free to moralize about how what Chinese people really want is a choice between two shitty parties, just how it is in America. But many Chinese look at America and think it's a terribly mismanaged country that used to be great, and is falling further and further behind due in large part to its deranged politics. It's simply not a given that the American way of doing things is better. Americans complain about China even while America destroys countries directly, overthrows governments, supports South and Central American death squads, supports tyrannical middle eastern regimes, gives huge sums of government money to major polluters, and engages in other reprehensible behavior. Take the log out of your eye before you look at the mote in ours. And if we're truly honest, the real problem is that white americans see non-white people getting rich and powerful, and that's something that the white supremacists who run rampant in America (and on Hacker News) cannot abide.
  - cutemonster 6y ago
    The way you write, sounds as if you believe all people with white skin color are racists Which seems a bit ironic Although maybe that isn't what you actually believe. Maybe just how you happened to write
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - pnw_hazor 6y ago
    The instability of the US government is by design: no Presidents' for life; single party-rule is discouraged; three co-equal branches of government; sovereign states; and so on. I, like many Americans, will always prefer democratic elections, rule of law, due process, right to bears arms in self defense, and free speech over government imposed "stability" any day.
reedwolf 6y ago
It seems really random that the Chinese are so into NBA. What next, Greeks being really into American gangsta rap music?
- jogjayr 6y ago
  Is it random they're into basketball or that they're into a foreign league? People follow lots of foreign soccer leagues, this is the same thing. Basketball is a quite popular sport internationally, unlike the 2 other big American inventions: baseball and football. Only a handful of countries outside the US have professional baseball leagues[1]. And other than Canada I don't know any country that has a professional football (gridiron) league. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball
  - wolco 6y ago
    Rugby kinda fills the football hole and cricket is a good baseball replacement. Korea has baseball leagues. Mexico has football, Japan, Brazil, China and Poland.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  Yao Ming was probably one of the first Chinese players of a foreign sport in a foreign league, and the NBA was very happy to promote this connection.
  - runawaybottle 6y ago
    Yao Ming was also one of the elite centers in the NBA during his prime (just behind Shaq). A 7’6 tall guy that could hit a jumper and make all his free throws (couldn’t foul him in the paint, or he’d make you pay). Injuries did him in, but he was nothing short of amazing even if he didn’t come from China. Quick wiki research: There have been regular Houston Rockets games that had over 200 million viewers from China. The super bowl has about 100 million in comparison. At the scale we’re talking about, this will become a recurring issue across many industries as you simply can’t deny the power of the Chinese market.
Tempest1981 6y ago
The Houston backlash is just starting to fade. NBA is trying to avoid a repeat of this: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-china-daryl-morey/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-...
rumanator 6y ago
> The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. Só what? Why should that dictate what letters I can or cannot put o the custom jersey I buy myself and pay with my own money?
- chongli 6y ago
  Because the CCP is a totalitarian government whose dictator banned Winnie the Pooh [1] after he was offended by a couple of memes. If people started wearing “freehongkong” jerseys it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that the NBA gets banned in China. Clearly the NBA does not want this. Critics are right to hold the NBA’s feet to the fire for this kowtowing behaviour. A lot of people are unaware of the degree to which China is extending its influence into Western countries. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-win...
  - throw776546 6y ago
    Winnie the Pooh is not banned, despite what that article says. You can easily buy Winne the Pooh toys, books, and entertainment in China. There’s even a huge Winnie the Pooh ride in Shanghai Disney.
    - bmn__ 6y ago
      That's the wrong point, you misunderstand the situation. The article was about caricatures and the movie, which both were definitely and verifiably censored and suppressed. (As usual, the bans are unevenly and arbitrarily enforced.) You talk about toys and books, which are not a problem.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ianleeclark 6y ago
  Presumably there was some risk assessment done by the NBA and they felt that allowing you to customize your jersey in such a way would risk shareholder value.
wdr1 6y ago
It doesn't have to be surprising to be outrageous.
11thEarlOfMar 6y ago
I'm curious what Chinese jersey buyers put on the back of their jerseys.
dirtyid 6y ago
I guess Clay "Republicans Buy Sneakers Too" Travis forgot Chinese buy more sneakers than republicans.

koheripbal 6y ago

The business value for a nation of fans = (Number of fans) x (avg profitability per fan) x (probability of losing fan over political decision) I would argue that while US fans are more profitable in aggregate (first two terms) the reason the NBA sides with China is due to the 3rd term. Chinese fans are vastly more sensitive to perceived "anti-Chinese" policies, whereas most US fans don't care one way or the other. Therefor the NBA's position is very predictable. If you want the NBA to care, you have to convince US NBA fans that this political stance is worth not spending money on. Good luck with that because the NBA fans I know, don't care at all.

RealStickman_ 6y ago
I'd argue that the chinese fans might not be the problem. Their government would be since they can just ban the NBA for their "anti-Chinese" stance.

stepstop 6y ago

> This shouldn't be surprising to people. The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. I disagree. The size of the fanbase is surprising, and so is the implication of this behaviour

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
MattGaiser 6y ago
Agreed. I had no idea that the NBA of all things was beholden to the Chinese market already.
- riffraff 6y ago
  The memes making fun of the NBA kowtowing to the CCP have been circulating since last year, IIRC. It's a sad state of things.
  - runevault 6y ago
    and REALLY took off after the Rockets GM publicly tweeted out against China earlier this year, while the rest of the league ripped into him including LeBron (despite LeBron trying to play up the more than an athlete idea about himself).
Seasonwreckage 6y ago
Just for visuals, this is like Mercedes barring Jewish people from buying their cars to please to Hitler and the the broader market. Of course we know who was on the right side of history.
classified 6y ago
It's what you get when the leading factor determining your values is profit. The NBA doesn't have American values, it has Capitalist values.

bassman9000 6y ago

Which is why millionaire players and coaches are absolutely mute (or are muted) on any China issue, or claim that the issue is complicated. I think it's healthy to remind people, from time to time, how Hollywod (e.g. Tencent), the NBA, and other American institutions have sold themselves to CCP money.

amznthrwaway 6y ago
I understand that many racists want it to be morally wrong to do business with China, but I don't believe it's that simple. Americans who've never even visited China feel free to moralize about how what Chinese people really want is a choice between two shitty parties, just how it is in America. But many Chinese look at America and think it's a terribly mismanaged country that used to be great, and is falling further and further behind due in large part to its deranged politics. It's simply not a given that the American way of doing things is better. Americans complain about China even while America destroys countries directly, overthrows governments, supports South and Central American death squads, supports tyrannical middle eastern regimes, gives huge sums of government money to major polluters, and engages in other reprehensible behavior. Take the log out of your eye before you look at the mote in ours. And if we're truly honest, the real problem is that white americans see non-white people getting rich and powerful, and that's something that the white supremacists who run rampant in America (and on Hacker News) cannot abide.
- cutemonster 6y ago
  The way you write, sounds as if you believe all people with white skin color are racists Which seems a bit ironic Although maybe that isn't what you actually believe. Maybe just how you happened to write
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- pnw_hazor 6y ago
  The instability of the US government is by design: no Presidents' for life; single party-rule is discouraged; three co-equal branches of government; sovereign states; and so on. I, like many Americans, will always prefer democratic elections, rule of law, due process, right to bears arms in self defense, and free speech over government imposed "stability" any day.

reedwolf 6y ago

It seems really random that the Chinese are so into NBA. What next, Greeks being really into American gangsta rap music?

jogjayr 6y ago
Is it random they're into basketball or that they're into a foreign league? People follow lots of foreign soccer leagues, this is the same thing. Basketball is a quite popular sport internationally, unlike the 2 other big American inventions: baseball and football. Only a handful of countries outside the US have professional baseball leagues[1]. And other than Canada I don't know any country that has a professional football (gridiron) league. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball
- wolco 6y ago
  Rugby kinda fills the football hole and cricket is a good baseball replacement. Korea has baseball leagues. Mexico has football, Japan, Brazil, China and Poland.
bobthepanda 6y ago
Yao Ming was probably one of the first Chinese players of a foreign sport in a foreign league, and the NBA was very happy to promote this connection.
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  Yao Ming was also one of the elite centers in the NBA during his prime (just behind Shaq). A 7’6 tall guy that could hit a jumper and make all his free throws (couldn’t foul him in the paint, or he’d make you pay). Injuries did him in, but he was nothing short of amazing even if he didn’t come from China. Quick wiki research: There have been regular Houston Rockets games that had over 200 million viewers from China. The super bowl has about 100 million in comparison. At the scale we’re talking about, this will become a recurring issue across many industries as you simply can’t deny the power of the Chinese market.

Tempest1981 6y ago

The Houston backlash is just starting to fade. NBA is trying to avoid a repeat of this: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-china-daryl-morey/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-...

rumanator 6y ago

> The NBA has a bigger fanbase in China than in the USA. Só what? Why should that dictate what letters I can or cannot put o the custom jersey I buy myself and pay with my own money?

chongli 6y ago
Because the CCP is a totalitarian government whose dictator banned Winnie the Pooh [1] after he was offended by a couple of memes. If people started wearing “freehongkong” jerseys it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that the NBA gets banned in China. Clearly the NBA does not want this. Critics are right to hold the NBA’s feet to the fire for this kowtowing behaviour. A lot of people are unaware of the degree to which China is extending its influence into Western countries. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-win...
- throw776546 6y ago
  Winnie the Pooh is not banned, despite what that article says. You can easily buy Winne the Pooh toys, books, and entertainment in China. There’s even a huge Winnie the Pooh ride in Shanghai Disney.
  - bmn__ 6y ago
    That's the wrong point, you misunderstand the situation. The article was about caricatures and the movie, which both were definitely and verifiably censored and suppressed. (As usual, the bans are unevenly and arbitrarily enforced.) You talk about toys and books, which are not a problem.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ianleeclark 6y ago
Presumably there was some risk assessment done by the NBA and they felt that allowing you to customize your jersey in such a way would risk shareholder value.

wdr1 6y ago

It doesn't have to be surprising to be outrageous.

11thEarlOfMar 6y ago

I'm curious what Chinese jersey buyers put on the back of their jerseys.

dirtyid 6y ago

I guess Clay "Republicans Buy Sneakers Too" Travis forgot Chinese buy more sneakers than republicans.