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.

A delivery driver goes through a flooded road on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Phot...

Associated Press

Heavy rains expected to bring flooding risk to already saturated parts of the US Southwest

Heavy rains starting Saturday evening were expected to bring a threat of flash flooding to already saturated areas of the U.S. Southwest through Monday, according to the National Weather Service. As much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall across the region, where a number of weather systems have brought a deadly autumn […]

32 minutes ago

Associated Press

Federal officials investigate fire at beleaguered police department in Mississippi

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local agencies are investigating a fire Saturday morning that damaged the building of a beleaguered police department in Mississippi that has drawn outrage from the community in recent months after an officer shot and killed a 1-year-old. It was unclear what caused the fire at […]

57 minutes ago

FILE - Dan J. Sullivan, a candidate in Alaska's U.S. Senate race who shares a name with the incumbe...

Associated Press

Attorneys for Alaska say ‘meritless’ Trump demand to set aside Senate ballots ‘not even possible’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s Republican-run state government on Saturday urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed at President Donald Trump’s direction to stop the certification of a possible Democratic win in that state’s pivotal U.S. Senate race, writing that there is “no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any […]

1 hour ago

President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking at a campaign rally at the Ocean Center...

Associated Press

Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein birthday letter is dismissed with prejudice

A federal judge on Saturday threw out President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed the suit with prejudice, ruling that the president did not prove the defendants […]

1 hour ago

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, left, and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, right, att...

Associated Press

ICE agent charged with assault for hitting a fleeing man with his car will turn himself in on Monday

A federal immigration officer charged with aggravated assault after he ran over a Mexican man with his car in Houston will turn himself in on Monday, according to his attorney. Mario Alberto Morales, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old construction worker, with his unmarked SUV on Oct. 10, […]

2 hours ago

President Donald Trump departs after speaking at a campaign rally at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Cen...

Associated Press

Paxton and Talarico tussle for Texas Senate seat. Trump to campaign virtually instead of in person

Texas was not expected to be an epicenter of midterm elections that could reshape the final chapters of Donald Trump’s second presidency. But Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico are making final weekend blitzes in a tossup U.S. Senate race that has become one measure of voters’ frustration with Trump’s leadership and his party. […]

2 hours ago

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