S10 O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| SATURDAY,OCTOBER19,2019
The rift between the NBA and
China appeared to widen again
Friday, as the fallout over Hous-
ton Rockets general manager Da-
ryl Morey’s tweet in support of
anti-government protesters in
Hong Kong continued.
A day after NBA commission-
er Adam Silver said Chinese offi-
cials wanted Morey fired, a
spokesman for China’s foreign
ministry told reporters that no
such demand was made by the
government there.
That becomes the latest chap-
ter in the now two-week-old saga
over Morey’s tweet that was
quickly deleted, but has led to
considerable damage to the long
relationship between the NBA
and China.
“I felt we had made enormous
progress in terms of building cul-
tural exchanges with the Chinese
people,” Silver said Thursday
during an appearance at the
Time 100 Health Summit in New
York.
“Again, I have regret that
much of that was lost. And I’m
not even sure where we’ll go
from here.”
That future seems even murk-
ier now.
During that same appearance,
Silver revealed that the Chinese
government told the NBA it
wanted Morey fired.
“Obviously, we made clear
that we were being asked to fire
him by the Chinesegovernment,
by the parties we dealt with, gov-
ernment and business,” Silver
said. “We said, ‘There’s no chance
that’s happening. There’s no
chance we’ll even discipline him.’“ But Friday, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Geng
Shuang rebutted by saying, “the
Chinese government never
posed this requirement.” Geng
said last week that the NBA “has
been working with China for a
long while, [and] it knows very
well what it should say and do
next.” Geng did not offer further
specifics.
The league and LeBron James,
one of its biggest stars, have
been heavily criticized by some
U.S. lawmakers for the percep-
tion that they caved to the Chi-
nese regime. Morey has not been
rebuked publicly by the league
and Silver has said that the
league will support his freedom
of expression.
“We wanted to make an abso-
lute clear statement that the val-
ues of the NBA, these American
values – we are an American
business – travel with us wherev-
er we go, and one of those values
is free expression,” Silver said.“We wanted to make sure every-
one understood we were sup-
porting free expression.”
The Rockets were of massive
interest in China, largely because
of Yao Ming – the Chinese star
who spent his entire NBA career
in Houston. Yao is now the presi-
dent of the Chinese Basketball
Association, which has suspend-
ed its ties to the Rockets because
of the tweet.
Morey has not commented
publicly since a pair of tweets on
Oct. 6 attempting to clarify his
position.
“I understand there is a point
of view from some that we
shouldn’t be in business at all in
China, and I’d say from an in-
tellectual standpoint, that’s fair –
not getting into whether the
tweet or the response to it,” Sil-
ver said. “But if people believe
that we shouldn’t be engaged in
commerce in China or frankly in
other places in the world ... I, at
some point, look to the Amer-ican government.
“We’re in the middle of nego-
tiating a trade agreement,” Silver
continued. “Many multinational
corporations do trade extensive-
ly with China. And if that’s ulti-
mately how our government
feels we should be dealing with
China, again, we are a U.S. com-
pany.”
Chinese state broadcaster
CCTV did not air the two NBA
preseason games between the
Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn
Nets last week. Tencent, which
has a US$1.5-billion deal to
stream NBA games in China over
the next five years, has also stop-
ped showing Rockets games but
has not totally dropped all NBA
content.
“The losses have already been
substantial,” Silver said. “Our
games are not back on the air in
China, as we speak, and we’ll see
what happens next.”THE ASSOCIATED PRESSChinadeniescallingforMorey’sfiring
TweetfromRocketsGM
continuestodamage
relationshipbetween
theNBAandBeijing
TIMREYNOLDS
C
anadians continue to be
stereotypically polite to for-
mer Toronto Raptors star
Kawhi Leonard.
The latest example came
Thursday, when Leonard made
his Canadian homecoming with
the Los Angeles Clippers for a
preseason game in Vancouver.
But it wasn’t the first time the
reigning NBA Finals MVP re-
ceived a warm greeting from Ca-
nucks since leaving Toronto.
“Just going around in the
summer time, even after me
signing with the Clippers, Cana-
dians came up to me and they
said thank you for everything
I’ve done,” Leonard said after the
game against the Dallas Maver-
icks.
“They’re very nice people.”
Leonard became one of Cana-
da’s most popular athletes last
season, as he led the Raptors to
their firstNBA championship
and was named Finals MVP after
averaging 30.5 points a game in
the extended playoff run.
Hopes were high that the suc-
cess would entice the 28 year old
to continue playing up north,
but Leonard opted to join his
hometown Clippers in free agen-
cy, reportedly agreeing to a
three-year, US$103-million con-
tract.
Still, Canadian basketball fans
showered him with love Thurs-
day, cheering boisterously when
he jogged out for warmups and
repeating the cheers every time
he hit a shot in the Clippers’ 102-
87 loss to the Mavericks.
A similar scene greeted the
team as players walked through
Vancouver’s streets before the
game, Clippers rookie Terance
Mann said.
“Definitely a lot of fans here. It
was nice to see, especially for Ka-
whi,” he said.
“It was awesome to see him
come back to Canada and every-
body give him a warm welcome.”
As the preseason comes to an
end, there’s one piece of busi-
ness still outstanding for last sea-
son’s NBA championship-win-
ning Raptors – raising the titlebanner to the rafters.
That will happen Tuesday,
when Toronto plays host to the
New Orleans Pelicans in the sea-
son opener. Leonard will be in
California during the ceremony,
preparing for the Clippers’ battle
with LeBron James and the L.A.
Lakers later that night.
The former Raptor says he still
plans to keep an eye on the cele-
bration.
“I’m going to probably check
it out,” Leonard said.
His focus, however, has al-
ready turned to the season
ahead.
For weeks now, the Clippers
have been working out in train-
ing camp, building systems and
creating new bonds.
“You just know personalities
so you just get more comfortable
talking to people, knowing what
they like, they know what I like
and just going from there, pretty
much,” Leonard explained.
“That’s why you just kind of
want to get around guys early, so
you can build the team chemis-
try and you can feel comfortable
talking to someone when you’reon and off the floor.”
One prominent face has been
missing from on-court drills,
however. Paul George, who came
to the Clippers this off-season af-
ter being recruited by Leonard,
has resumed training after un-
dergoing surgery on both shoul-
ders during the off season.
With a key player still to join,
it’s hard to say what the Clippers
will look like early on in the year,
Leonard said.
“We’ll just have to see how it
plays out,” he said.
“We still have to find a rhythm
with each other playing together.
But I think we’re going to do
well.”
Leonard is no stranger to re-
turning from a major injury.
Playing for the San Antonio
Spurs in 2017, he suffered a qua-
driceps injury and when he was
traded to the Raptors in the sum-
mer of 2018, staff had to carefully
consider what the star’s body
could handle.
They came up with a “load
management” regime that saw
Leonard play 60 regular-season
games, while sitting out for 22.It’s not a schedule that Leo-
nard plans to follow again this
season.
“I was injured last year com-
ing in, so it was the only way I
could play the schedule and not
really affect the team outcome,”
he said.
“So this year will be a lot dif-
ferent.”
Outside expectations for the
Clippers are high this season. A
survey of NBA general managers
picked the team as the one to
beat for this year’s champion-
ship title.
Inside the locker room, the
players are taking the season one
step at a time, Leonard said.
“It’s not about what people
think or what they pick,” said Le-
onard, who will make his return
to Toronto on Dec. 11 when the
Clippers face the Raptors. “It’s
about the work we do and what
our mindset’s going to be. If we
don’t want to win, we’re not go-
ing to win. And if we want to,
then we have a big chance to
win.”THE CANADIAN PRESSFormerRaptorLeonardgetshero’swelcomeinVancouver
GEMMAKARSTENS-SMITH
VANCOUVER
A subgenre of winsome stories
emerged – children tossing off
their hockey gloves and going in
search of a hoop, pied-piper like.
A great conversion was under
way.
The implication seemed to be
that Canada was growing up. We
were now more than a one-trick
sports pony.
As many as two million peo-
ple showed up at the Raptors vic-
tory parade in downtown Toron-
to. A week later, club president
Masai Ujiri declared the fran-
chise bigger than the NBA itself:
“We’re the new [Liverpool FC].
We’re going to capture the
world.”
The theory was that basket-
ball acts like a malarial conta-
gion – once you have been in-
fected by it, the symptoms never
fully abate. In June, Canada was
in the feverish, night-sweats
stage.
Then things started going
wrong.
First, Kawhi Leonard left.
Somewhere deep in our souls,
we all knew that was going to
happen.
No one got angry about it. In
fact, people seemed bizarrely
pleased at being tossed over by
their brand-new basketball boy-
friend. That may be the most
Canadian part of the whole
thing.
Leonard was universally
praised in this country for his
cunning and cheered on his way
through Customs. He showed up
in Vancouver the other night for
an exhibition game and got a
standing O upon introduction.
All these admirers may feel a
little less keen on him once it
becomes clear what he’s left be-
hind.
The Raptors without Leonard
aren’t exactly the Beatles with-
out Lennon. They’re more like
Wings without McCartney.
The team has one star left –
Pascal Siakam. Siakam is still a
comer rather than a fully formed
difference maker. He’s had one
great year, and did that with Leo-
nard out in front of him running
interference. Now he has to im-
prove without the benefit of
much cover at all.
After him, the team has a Gol-
dilocks problem – either a little
too old (Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol)
or a little too young (Fred VanV-
leet, OG Anunoby). Once you get
past the starting lineup, it rap-
idly turns into a game of “re-
mind-me-who-that-is-again-oh-
him-right-well-okay-then.”
Meanwhile, the best teams in
the Eastern Conference have got
better. The Raptors are still a
contender, but for what exactly
we’re not sure.
The second thing that hap-
pened over the summer was a
basketball World Cup that acted
as a qualifier for next summer’s
Olympics.
Before the Raptors went on
their run, this tournament was
meant to be Canada’s transfor-
mational basketball moment. We
now had enough NBA-level tal-
ent to stock two decent interna-
tional men’s teams. A few of
those players – Jamal Murray,
Tristan Thompson, R.J. Barrett –
are stars or proto-stars. The
launch of Canada as a global su-
perpower in the sport was (slow-
ly raises hand toward the sun)
inevitable.
But none of the stars showed
up. A couple were hurt. Some-
body missed a phone call. Thedog ate one guy’s plane ticket.
More depressing than the ab-
sences was the fact that few play-
ers bothered to make up a de-
cent excuse. They figured the
country didn’t care and, as it
turned out, they were right.
Canada bombed out of the
tournament and though we are
compelled to say there is still a
chance the team makes Tokyo,
there is no chance.
Lots of countries have a gold-
en sports generation. Canada
may be the first with an imagi-
nary one. We might’ve been
great. In theory. We are theoret-
ical Olympic medalists.
The cumulative effect here –
Leonard leaves; Raptors get me-
diocre overnight; Canada’s na-
tional basketball set-up looks
out over a field of rakes and de-
cides not to bother walking into
it – is deadening.
There will still be a couple of
echo moments to rally around.
The banner raising is one of
them. Leonard returns to Toron-
to on Dec. 11. Unless everything
goes completely sideways, the
Raptors should make the play-
offs.
But will all the bandwagon
jumpers who felt so stronglyabout this sport four months ago
show up nightly in the interim?
No. Of course, they won’t.
Basketball didn’t have a mo-
ment in Canada during the
spring. Kawhi Leonard and the
shiny newness of a winner did.
The two things together moved
people.
Now that those two things
have been removed from the
conversation, all the people who
piled in at the end will remove
themselves as well.
That still leaves a sizable core
of basketball-first types. There
are more than enough of them
to sustain the team, but they are
not representative of the whole.
They’re the true believers. For ev-
eryone else, this particular
church is a Christmas-only affair.
Canada remains what it al-
ways was – a front-running coun-
try and a hockey country, in that
order. If someone’s winning, we
like them. If no one’s winning,
we’ll settle for hockey. If a hock-
ey team is winning, then you
might as well cancel all the other
sports.
(Not that anyone under 40
would know what that feels
like.)
The Raptors did a mitzvah –
they reminded Canada that it
was okay to be good at things.
Leonard made that happen close
to single-handedly. He deserves a
statue for it.
Canada will continue to pro-
duce NBA players because all
sport is global now. Basketball,
with its low cost, high glamour
and ease of access, is designed to
attract young participants, a very
few of whom will be great. This
process was well under way be-
fore the Raptors got good.
But if there was a moment
when a conversion from what we
are now into some new, enlight-
ened sports version of ourselves
was possible, it’s passed.
It may yet happen, but if so, it
will be gradual. You don’t let go
of the old ways that easily.
Which I’m guessing most peo-
ple think is okay. If the choice
was win and then be disappoint-
ed, or not win at all, I’m going to
assume everyone – the hard
core, the fair-weather, the people
who just like a party – can agree
they’d take the first thing every
single time.Kelly:Atruebasketball-inspiredshiftmayhappenforCanada,butitwillbegradual
FROMS1RaptorPascalSiakam
attemptsalayupagainst
theWarriorsduring
Game1oftheNBAFinals
inTorontoinMay.Siakam
isToronto’slone
remainingstar,Cathal
Kellywrites,andhehada
greatyear–withKawhi
Leonardinfrontofhim
runninginterference.
VAUGHNRIDLEY/
GETTYIMAGESThetheorywasthat
basketballactslikea
malarialcontagion–
onceyouhavebeen
infectedbyit,the
symptomsnever
fullyabate.InJune,
Canadawasinthe
feverish,
night-sweatsstage.BASKETBALL