If a single GM voicing support for Hong Kong protesters is really a “third-rail issue” for Beijing, as Nets owner Joe Tsai insists, then the National Basketball Association had better prepare to lose its lucrative China business soon enough. Eventually, the tyrannical regime will demand too much.

The NBA would be better off imitating “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Beijing literally purged the show from China’s internet after a single episode that satirized the way Chinese censorship now rules Hollywood.

Their response: “Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy.”

To be fair, the NBA stands to lose a lot of dough by crossing China’s rulers. But keeping that cash apparently requires every player, coach and official to stay silent not just on Hong Kong, but also Tibet, the million Muslims in “re-education” camps, organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, the oppression of Christian churches and countless other abuses.

It’s impossible to keep these moral monsters happy in the long run. But the NBA is trying. In this, it’s following Hollywood — which has actually allowed the Communist Chinese to alter films like “Top Gun 2” and the “Red Dawn” remake.

We’ve always believed that open societies are inherently stronger than tyrannical ones. But for that to hold, freedom has to matter more than greed.