The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys • Hacker News Board

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#61

Post by miles » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #38

reedwolf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's spycraft, a way for US culture and influence to penetrate China. It's deliberate.

If anything, it seems more like spycraft for Chinese culture and influence to penetrate the U.S.:

American Basketball vs. Chinese Hardball: Guess Who Won https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/asia/china-nba-cens...

NBA Stars Study Hollywood’s Playbook in China https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-stars-study-hollywoods-play...

NBA, 'South Park' episodes spotlight Hollywood's China dilemma https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hollywood/nba-south...

‘South Park’ creators issue mocking ‘apology’ after China reportedly bans sitcom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KCVj_v0ik

Band in China https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#62

Post by koheripbal » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

ezluckyfree wrote: post #6

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-5...

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.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#63

Post by mmm_grayons » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #54

You know, people are absolutely free to buy the shirt and stencil on any sentiment or message they feel. Or is speech only meaningful if you added it to your shopping cart and it went through the pipes of commerce? Kind of exactly what people are upset about in the first place?

I wonder about this: while I don't agree with the idea, it seems legally questionable. If, hypothetically, the KKK got such a jersey and pasted racist slogans on it, the NBA could reasonably claim the people doing so were unjustly associating its brand with causes it didn't support. They would be using the NBA brand in a manner in which they had not received license to use it. I think the same thing applies here: while I don't approve of this action by the NBA, they could have grounds for legal action against someone doing this (though I imagine it would make a bad PR situation even worse).

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#64

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

stepstop wrote: post #12

ezluckyfree wrote: post #6

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-5...

> 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]

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#65

Post by ed25519FUUU » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:46 PM UTC

I’m continually surprised at how willing the elites, the media, corporate America and our elected politicians are to carry water for China.

Our elected politicians expend endless breath calling “Wuhan virus” racist but don’t even dare utter a word about an active genocide against Uighur minorities? No problem with the president of one of our largest rival countries effectively becoming a dictator for life?

Let’s all keep calling people xenophobic while Xi consolidates power and swallows HK.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#66

Post by wolco » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:47 PM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #40

throwawaysea wrote: post #23

What is their stance on other political messaging or activism - for instance putting BLM on jerseys or kneeling? EDIT: comments suggest that the NBA does allow some political message like BLM. It seems like the NBA is now a political organization that is picking sides. Given BLM’s leadership are open, self admitted “trained Marxists” ( https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/07/09/say-you-want-a-marxi... ) and those suppor…

The difference is that supporting BLM earns them more money. Supporting Hong Kong loses them money. Don't make the mistake of assuming anyone with the power to make these types of decisions gives a single shit about the humanitarian aspect of any of these things.

The next generation will realize how pretending to be for a cause is worse than not supporting it.

I saw an ad for bamba socks. For every pair you buy we will give a pair to a homeless shelter.

Sounds good but those socks are like 25/30 dollars for a pair. If they really cared they would take that 25 dollars and buy cheap white warm socks in bundles. For 25 dollars you could get 100 pairs. But they don't care but do things to make you think they do.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#67

Post by thoughtstheseus » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:47 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #51

yumraj wrote: post #21

How about: Free China of CCP That’ll take care of all the underlying issues.

It won't change the minds of the millions of people in political power in China. Lots of Chinese feel quite strongly that the Taiwan/Tibet/Hong Kong claims are legitimate and that the international community is attacking China. I guess it would be like if the US was forced to cede Texas back to Mexico because they lost a war. Most Americans, regardless of political party, would hold the opinion that Texas is still Am…

How can anyone hold a political position in China and not hold those viewpoints? It’s illegal, in practice, to speak or take actions otherwise.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#68

Post by runevault » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #41

MattGaiser wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I had no idea that the NBA of all things was beholden to the Chinese market already.

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.

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).

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#69

Post by realmod » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:50 PM UTC

make3 wrote: post #19

bdz wrote: post #10

The funny thing that you can order it from SEA (mostly Thailand) for roughly ~$30 through https://www.dhgate.com/ DHGate is perfect to buy fake jerseys that are pretty much the same with genuine tags. Either stolen from the factory or they work overhours, I don't know. But the quality and the actual product is almost always the same.

this is about the NBA kowtowing to the CCP, no one is surprised you can buy fake shirts somewhere

I can definitely concede that the NBA is acting cowardly, but I feel like the amount of hate/attacks NBA is receiving is disproportionate. Essentially all global businesses appease China to varying degrees and NBA is being singled out because of their outspokenness on US-related issues. And denigrating companies because they did not speak about ALL issues would simply result in them avoiding all contentious issues. Furthermore, a lot of this outrage feels extremely disingenious which I feel like further justify my "distaste".

Like I stated in a previous comment - our main focus should be pressuring the government and congress where the real change happen. Especially since China would retaliate against any company talking about their issues. Also, focusing on the gov/congress do not in any way prevent the pressuring of companies to do the right thing.

Re: The NBA bans customers from putting ‘freehongkong’ on customized league jerseys

#70

Post by chongli » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:50 PM UTC

rumanator wrote: post #45

ezluckyfree wrote: post #6

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-5...

> 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?

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-win...