Australian superstar Andrew Bogut has dived into the spiralling controversy over China, Hong Kong and free speech that has engulfed the NBA, even as the world's most popular basketball league was furiously trying to extricate itself from the firestorm.

While the NBA was rapidly backing away from a hastily-deleted tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, saying they were "extremely inappropriate", Bogut was tweeting his thanks to the Rockets boss.

The outspoken Australian veteran had his own troubles after criticising accused drug cheat and Chinese swimming champion Sun Yang, leading to continual booing whenever he touched the ball in the Boomers' recent World Cup campaign in the country.

"Thanks @dmorey for taking some of the nmsl’s I was flooded with....! Enjoy the next few weeks anytime you post anything!" Bogut said on Twitter. NMSL is a Chinese slang acronym meaning "your mother is dead" commonly hurled as abuse online.