TIME featured NBA commissioner Adam Silver among other high-profile executives for their May issue touching on a wide range of topics. Namely, the league’s relationship with China following an eventful two-year stretch.
China’s state television CCTV and streaming service Tencent suspended all preseason NBA game broadcasts following an October 2019 tweet by then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. The post showed support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Over a year passed before China started showing the games again. CCTV brought back the 2020 NBA Finals because of the league’s assistance to China in fighting COVID-19. Silver said the league is still broadcasting games in the country after the incident.
“We continue to televise our games in China,” Silver said to TIME. “Our most significant television partner is Tencent, which is a streaming service in China. And we have hundreds of millions of fans in China who we continue to serve.”
Silver opened up further about his feelings toward calls to boycott China and cut them out of the NBA world.
“The political science major in me believes that engagement is better than isolation,” Silver said. “That a so-called boycott of China, taking into account legitimate criticisms of the Chinese system, won’t further the agenda of those who seek to bring about global change. Working with Chinese solely on NBA basketball has been a net plus for building relationships between two superpowers.”
When pressed about specific human rights issues and what basketball can change about China’s ways, Silver had this to say.
“While there are many differences between our society and Chinese society, there are enormous commonalities as well. One of them is to love a sport. And basketball happens to be the most popular team sport in China right now. We think that through that common love and appreciation of the game of basketball, that that’s a way to bring people together. It’s as simple as that.”
