NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Monday that the league supports Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s right to express his political opinions — but admitted that Morey’s pro-Hong Kong protester remarks are already costing the league heavily.

“I think as a values-based organization that I want to make it clear … that Daryl Morey is supported in terms of his ability to exercise his freedom of expression,” Silver told Japan’s Kyodo News ahead of an exhibition game between the Rockets and Toronto Raptors in the country.

“What I am supporting is his freedom of political expression in this situation.”

In a since-deleted Friday tweet, Morey wrote, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” in reference to pro-democracy protests that have been raging there for months.

The remark — which Morey scrambled to clarify — drew swift condemnation from many deep-pocketed Chinese companies and organizations that do business with the NBA, with several severing ties to the Rockets, a fact Silver acknowledged.

“There is no doubt, the economic impact is already clear,” he told Kyodo News. “There have already been fairly dramatic consequences from that tweet, and I have read some of the media suggesting that we are not supporting Daryl Morey, but in fact we have.”

Among those grumbling was Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets and co-founder of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba, who penned an essay chastising Morey.

Silver made clear he was not picking sides.

“I am also supporting Joe Tsai,” he said. “I realize, as I said again, these are complex issues. They don’t lend themselves easily to social media. I can’t ultimately run the NBA based on trying to satisfy everyone on Twitter.

“And I will just add that the fact that we have apologized to fans in China is not inconsistent with supporting someone’s right to have a point of view.”