Fox Sports 1 “Speak For Yourself” co-host Jason Whitlock on Thursday ripped the NBA and Nike for bowing to China after the Houston Rockets general manager expressed support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and, as a result, China suspended ties with the league.

Whitlock said on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, one of the league’s most outspoken players on politics, have essentially been told to “shut up and dribble” – a reference to Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham telling James to stay out of politics – to help salvage the league’s relationship with China.

“This provides them a level of protection,” Whitlock explained. “They won’t say anything stupid or say anything that further irritates the relationship with China.”

The Fox Sports 1 personality went on to say the NBA and Nike are both “beholden” to China and its market and have to “play” by their communist rules.

“I think a lot of the things that are being said here in America, by these athletes, sponsored by Nike, is really at the behest of China,” Whitlock stated. “Look, China and communist regimes have a long history of portraying the West, America, the United States of America, as racist. And they do it to cover up their own racism and the brutality of communism. These athletes … I don’t think they fully understand how they’re being manipulated by China and their addiction to that money over there. They’re doing the bidding of the communist regime by constantly attacking and portraying America as unrecoverably racist.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent