SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: NBA’s behavior over Houston Rockets GM Tweet as shameful as Inslee’s

Oct 8, 2019, 4:28 PM

Houston Rockets...

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, applauds guests as he stands with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, right, following his speech at an October 2015 banquet in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

China is apparently in up arms over a Tweet by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey.

All he said were seven words.

The Houston Rockets are the most popular NBA team in China because Chinese basketball player Yao Ming played for the Rockets. They’ve always considered the Houston Rockets their team. The Chinese market is unbelievable lucrative, and the NBA went aggressively after it.

But the NBA is shameful in how all of this is being handled.

Dori: This is why I hate politics

As you probably know, there are freedom fighters in Hong Kong who do not want to be under Chinese communist rule. The Chinese government has gotten increasingly violent toward them.

Daryl Morey Tweeted from his personal Twitter account, “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

Those seven words have caused massive backlash in China. Other NBA owners are kissing up to the Chinese because they want money. Now because of pressure from the Chinese government, the Houston Rockets general manager might get fired because of a single Tweet.

You know who has been silent on all of this? Our governor, Jay Inslee.

That’s really interesting. You see, when Mississippi passed a law allowing businesses and religious groups to refuse service to gay couples if homosexuality violated their faith, Jay Inslee banned official state travel to Mississippi. He also banned official travel to North Carolina because of a law that state passed requiring people to use the bathroom of their biological sex.

But for China? Jay Inslee rolled out the red carpet when the president of China visited Seattle in 2015. Even though in China, the only way you can be recognized as transgender is if you are first diagnosed as having a mental illness. Is that cool with Jay Inslee?

This is what makes me so furious about our politicians. None of the radical Leftists in politics have a moral compass; all they care about is money and power. Banning state travel to Mississippi costs nothing. There is nothing at stake. But banning travel to China — which is far more draconian about transgender rights than Mississippi — would cost us some serious money, because we have so many business dealings with China. So instead, we welcome the Chinese president with open arms.

It’s easy to have the courage of your convictions if it doesn’t cost you anything.

Shame on the NBA for kissing up to China because of the multi-billion-dollar market they’ve cultivated with that country. I don’t want the NBA back in Seattle. Seattle has done fine since the Sonics left, since the NBA stabbed the market with the greatest support out of any franchise in the country in the back. The Sonics shattered every attendance record; there was no better market. But Oklahoma had more money, so the NBA abandoned this heritage franchise.

The NBA and Jay Inslee both have shown how little they care about freedom and how much they care about money. We’ve got nobody in politics in this region who has any moral compass at all.

Money and power — their compass wheel will spin whichever way those things point.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Dori: NBA’s behavior over Houston Rockets GM Tweet as shameful as Inslee’s