Sports journalist Jason Whitlock denounces NBA, Nike, and other sports authorities and businesses for kowtowing to China in an interview Tuesday night with FOX News host Tucker Carlson. Whitlock explains how the shoe and athletic apparel companies are dependent on the Chinese market which influences how the NBA interacts with the Communist country.



"You see NBA players constantly over the summer in their off-season running to China to do the bidding of their shoe companies and to sell their shoes in the China market and so the NBA is really being exposed as not nearly as much of American business as it is a global business with China perhaps having more influence over it than even America," Whitlock explained.





"These athletes are young and I'm not giving them an excuse but they're young," he said. "Many of them didn't go to college, they've only spent a year or two ago in college. They don't understand how they're being used and played to promote a communist, a Marxist agenda."



"These guys can rail against our government, our president and be applauded for it. They don't have the courage to speak out against a communist government. All kinds of human rights violations. It's the epitome of hypocrisy and cowardice," Whitlock said.





JASON WHITLOCK, FOX SPORTS 1: I think the cultural impact that China's influence over a great sport, great American sport like basketball, is just now being exposed and just how dependent the NBA is on the Chinese economy and the Chinese money to put on the appearance of how great the league is doing. Without the Chinese money and without -- you really have to understand the shoe companies, Nike, Adidas, they run American basketball from the high school level all the way to the pros and the shoe companies are dependent on the China market and that's where all of this is coming from.



You see NBA players constantly over the summer in their off-season running to China to do the bidding of their shoe companies and to sell their shoes in the China market and so the NBA is really being exposed as not nearly as much of American business as it is a global business with China perhaps having more influence over it than even America.



TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: That's shocking given that of course -- shocking because I don't think most people know that but also shocking because the NBA was of course incubated in this country which wouldn't have been possible in any other. Basketball was invented in Springfield, Massachusetts at a YMCA. It's the most American of all sports. And I don't know that there is any basketball arena that wasn't subsidized by American taxpayers so how could they possibly take this position?



WHITLOCK: Tucker, the cultural impact of this and what a great teachable moment it is for most American citizens. When people start talking about being a global citizen, I don't think people really understand what that means for American culture and I think for a lot of the everyday typical American sports fans, this is an educational experience.



This is what people have been talking about. We can't let our corporations, our country to be totally by China because it's driving out of culture. These basketball players, LeBron James, James Harden actually apologized on behalf of [Houston Rockets General Manager] Daryl Morey to the Chinese government. We are apologizing to a communist government and then we have athletes here and coaches like Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich that rail against our government. We're the bad guys in the minds of these NBA players and coaches and their little parade of being so woke.



All of it to me is at the behest of the shoe companies. They're doing the bidding of the shoe companies and protecting China and demonizing us and our culture and dramatically changing our culture.



These athletes are young and I'm not giving them an excuse but they're young. Many of them didn't go to college, they've only spent a year or two ago in college. They don't understand how they're being used and played to promote a communist, a Marxist agenda.



They have no idea that their actions and a lot of the things they are promoting, this victim mentality, all the identity politics and everything in America's racist, all of it. It's all a scam by the shoe companies. Look how socially aware we are, look how we fight against injustice. No. You're actually doing a marketing ploy to pretend you have a social conscience and you actually are doing the bidding of the communist regime in China.



CARLSON: Maybe the single most racist government in the world. It's literally an ethnostate and here's the socially conscious NBA. It's a little shocking to me that Kerr, of all people, who never hesitates to give his opinions, often lauded for it, can't manage to say that he takes Hong Kong's side.



WHITLOCK: Tucker, these guys can rail against our government, our president and be applauded for it. They don't have the courage to speak out against a communist government. All kinds of human rights violations. It's the epitome of hypocrisy and cowardice.