U.S. presidential candidate Yang blasts Chinese response to Rockets

The ongoing controversy and backlash regarding a tweet about Hong Kong from Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey reached high political levels when U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang weighed in.

“The Chinese government banning the Rockets is a terrible move,” Yang tweeted Sunday morning. The response from Chinese organizations comes after Morey tweeted an image early Saturday that read, “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.”

Morey later deleted it, but not before Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta saw it on Twitter and quoted it with a response clarifying that it was not the franchise’s position.

A day later, numerous Chinese sponsors, and even the Chinese Basketball Association — with former Rockets franchise icon Yao Ming as its president — suspended their ties with the team.

In addition, Tencent Sports announced Sunday that all live streaming and news reporting of the Rockets would be suspended. The company gave customers who bought a subscription to watch Houston games online the opportunity to pick another NBA team.

It is not known if any of these moves are permanent. Other than Fertitta’s quote tweet, the Rockets have not issued a public comment.

For his part, Yang — running as a Democratic candidate for the 2020 U.S. presidential election — used Twitter to show his disapproval with the extent of the backlash.

Yang, a 44-year-old enterpreneur, is one of 12 Democratic candidates for president scheduled to take part in an official Oct. 15 debate. He’s certainly not a conventional politician, and this isn’t the first time that Yang has used his Twitter feed to weigh in on NBA matters.

Later Sunday, fellow Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro — who formerly served as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and as the mayor of his native San Antonio, Texas — echoed Yang’s sentiment:

In Houston, the Chinese Consulate General issued its own statement Sunday to express “strong dissatisfaction” with the Rockets:

We are deeply shocked by the erroneous comments on Hong Kong made by Mr. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets. We have lodged representations and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Houston Rockets, and urged the latter to correct the error and take immediate concrete measures to eliminate the adverse impact.

The Rockets have had a significant number of Chinese fans and revenues since 2002, when Houston drafted Yao No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft. The 7-foot-6 center averaged 19.0 points and 9.2 rebounds in 32.5 minutes per game across eight seasons in Houston.

Though his career was cut short by injuries, forcing his retirement in 2011, Yao’s brief tenure was impactful enough that he is already a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Just last week, the Shanghai Sharks — once owned by Yao — visited Houston to play the Rockets in a preseason game.

As recently as last season, the Rockets even had alternate uniforms with Chinese lettering to acknowledge fans in China.

Located on China’s Southeast coast, Hong Kong is now officially a Special Administrative Region of China. But the territory was under British rule as a colony for a very extended period before being transferred to China in 1997.

Pro-democracy residents of Hong Kong have long accused China of slowly encroaching on their rights, and a government proposal earlier this year to change extradition laws to allow suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China to face trial ignited numerous protests.

The extradition bill was recently withdrawn, but the youth-led protests have now morphed into a wider anti-government movement. They’ve also become larger and more violent in recent weeks. (Read more about the dispute’s background at USA Today.)

Though Fertitta appeared to rebuke Morey publicly in his response to the Hong Kong tweet, he later clarified that “everything is fine” between himself and the GM, whom he regards as the NBA’s best.

Morey is currently in Asia with other Rockets executives, coaches, and players, who return to preseason play on Tuesday and Thursday in Saitama, Japan. That’s where the Rockets will face the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors in the NBA Japan Games 2019.

The team is scheduled to arrive back in Houston on Friday.