NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he hopes to meet with Chinese officials this week when he travels to Shanghai for Thursday night's game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets — after a tweet from one of the league's executives ignited an international firestorm.

Chinese state-run television network CCTV said it was suspending the current broadcast arrangements for the NBA's preseason games in China, including this week's game, after the general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, tweeted support Sunday for the anti-government protests in Hong Kong. The fallout has escalated from there as other Chinese companies began severing ties to the National Basketball Association.

Silver called CCTV's decision "unfortunate" and apologized for offending the league's Chinese fans. He stood by Morey's right to express his opinions, saying the league would "protect its employees' freedom of speech."

"If that's the consequences of us adhering to our values, we still feel it's critically important we adhere to those values," he said, speaking at news conference Tuesday in Tokyo before a preseason game between the Rockets and NBA champion Toronto Raptors.

He said he hopes to meet with Chinese officials later this week to "discuss where we stand and again, put those remarks from Daryl Morey and my remarks in an appropriate context of a many decades-long relationship and see if we can find mutual respect for each other's political systems and beliefs."