Nice to see NBA bigwigs continuing to bend over backwards to avoid offending the Chinese government’s delicate sensibilities. After Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted his solidarity with the Hong Kong protesters, he was essentially forced to back down. Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai would just like to state for the record that he’s sure Morey’s a great GM and all, but standing with a “separatist movement” as Morey did is just straight-up unacceptable:

NEW: The new owner of the Nets, Joe Tsai, has issued an open letter about the Morey situation: https://t.co/JZAy7EERQg pic.twitter.com/ffVgJMQ3Qx — Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 7, 2019

Wow, remarkable: Tsai, an NBA owner, is critical of Morey: "By now I hope you can begin to understand why the Daryl Morey tweet is so damaging to the relationship with our fans in China…" pic.twitter.com/WVhDAwoOnN — Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 7, 2019

Tsai, an NBA owner, refers to the Hong Kong protesters as a "separatist movement." On Morey: " I don’t know Daryl personally. I am sure he’s a fine NBA general manager, and I will take at face value his subsequent apology that he was not as well informed as he should have been." — Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 7, 2019

Good Lord.

So, Daryl Morey tweeting support of democracy in Hong Kong is just like the rape of Nanking. Got it. — Ben Schwartz !¡!¡ (@benschwartz_) October 7, 2019

Holy shit what a completely tone deaf statement. — Jᴀqᴇn H'ghᴀr (@RealFacelessMan) October 7, 2019

On the contrary, his statement is perfectly calibrated for the intended audience. — Alan Cole (@AlanMCole) October 7, 2019

Good point:

Did the Chinese government write this? Because it reads like the Chinese government wrote this statement. https://t.co/x0tnnQybI4 — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 7, 2019

They might as well have written it.