The center, a human rights advocate, criticized China's repressive treatment of Tibet, which could re-inflame tensions between the NBA and Beijing.
In the months since, the NBA had gradually begun to mend its reputation in the country, with games returning to online broadcast. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, meanwhile, has been brutally suppressed, with over 100 activists and opposition politicians thrown in jail under a new National Security law that makes publicly criticizing mainland Chinese rule a crime.
In a three-minute video post to his social media accounts on Wednesday, Kanter decried China’s “cultural genocide” in Tibet while wearing a t-shirt featuring the face of the Dalai Lama. “Under the Chinese government’s brutal rule, the Tibetan people’s basic rights and freedoms are non-existent,” he said. “They are not allowed to learn and study their own language and culture freely.”
“I say, ‘Shame on the Chinese government,’” he added. “The Chinese dictatorship is erasing Tibetan identity and culture.”Shortly after news of Kanter’s remarks reached China, Celtics games became unavailable for replay on the video services of Chinese internet giant Tencent, which has a $1.5 billion deal with the NBA to stream games in the country. The website for Tencent Sports also posted that upcoming Celtics games would not be broadcast.
The most popular Celtics fan account on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, notified its more than half a million followers that it would cease posting about the team, writing, “Resolutely resist any behavior that damages national harmony and the dignity of the motherland!” If the reactionary response to Kanter’s statements gathers stream in China, and the entire NBA becomes the target again for greater retribution, the incident is likely to reignite the ideological frisson that followed the 2019 Morey incident. NBA commissioner Adam Silver declined to directly apologize for Morey’s remarks at the time, but there was widespread criticism in the U.S.
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