STILL POPULAR. On court, Chinese fans continue to cheer for NBA superstars like LeBron James. Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP
Despite the controversy, the teams have been embraced by Chinese fans at the first game on Thursday in Shanghai, also won by Brooklyn, and Game 2 Saturday in the southern city of Shenzhen near Hong Kong. China portrays the protesters as violent separatists, and its state press and social media went ballistic over Morey's comment, though a government effort to curb the vitriol now appears under way.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo became the latest high-profile US politician to urge the NBA to place principle over profit and stand up to China, citing its mass detentions of Muslim ethnic Uighurs in its Xinjiang region."The pages of George Orwell's '1984' are coming to life there. I wish the NBA would acknowledge that," Pompeo said during a speech in Nashville.