The tense commercial relationship between the United States and China and the recent controversy surrounding Hong Kong protests, Daryl Morey tweets, left doubt about how former NBA players are adapting to the Chinese basketball league. A good example of analysis is the recent fact that occurred with former Boston Celtics player forward Guerschon Yabusele.

After two seasons playing in the NBA, Yabusele left Boston Celtics and went to China to play for Nanjing Monkey Kings. The player who was drafted in 2016 in the first round with No. 16 pick seems to have found his space and has been playing good basketball in an admittedly weaker league. What Yabusele could not imagine was that he would be fined for not looking at the Chinese flag during the national anthem. The French-born player was fined 10,000 yuan for not lifting his head during the anthem which apparently is mandatory.

Former-#Celtics player Guerschon Yabusele fined 10,000 yuan ($1,422) by #CBA league after he failed to look at China’s national flag during the pre-game playing of China’s national Anthem. https://t.co/Ue6MQsoSpp pic.twitter.com/szxS07NUX2 — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) December 8, 2019

Playing for the Celtics the forward rarely had opportunities in his two seasons in the NBA. He averaged 2.3 points, 1.4 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per game. In the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) Yabusele has far higher numbers with 17.3 points, 5 rebounds in 26 minutes per game. At only 23 this is the second season of the former Boston player in China and so we can assume that the athlete is already well adapted to the cultural characteristics of the country.

So far, neither Yabusele or his current team has publicly spoken out about this, but this is not the first time a former NBA player has been punished by the CBA. In April of this year, MarShon Brooks was curiously fined for the same reason, for not looking at the Chinese flag during the anthem.