NBA partnership with China's state-run TV still on the rocks following Rockets' Daryl Morey tweet: report
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
The feud between China’s state-run TV and the NBA was reignited on Monday after CCTV announced that it will continue its ban of the airing of any games as part of the fallout from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s pro-Hong Kong tweet last year.
The relationship between the two entities came to an abrupt halt in October after the general manager appeared to show support for the anti-government protesters in a since-deleted tweet: “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong."
CHINA SUSPENDS WORK WITH HOUSTON ROCKETS AFTER GM’S HONG KONG TWEET
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Morey later tweeted: “I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives.”
CCTV subsequently ended its relationship with the NBA, but on Monday the league named Michael Ma, the son of CCTV-co founder Ma Guoli, as the new CEO of NBA China -- fueling speculation that the two were working to repair their partnership, ESPN reported.
Those rumors were quickly squashed when CCTV issued a statement on the Chinese social-networking platform Weibo "reiterating its consistent stance on national sovereignty."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CLICK HERE TO GET MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON foxnews.1eye.us
Prior to the season being suspended on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the league had already revised its salary-cap projections downward for next season after losing $300 million in revenue from the lost partnership, ESPN reported.