China has made its way into the sports news quite a bit over the past few years. From the NBA’s overreaction to then-Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s support of Hong Kong to the strange case of tennis player Peng Shuai to the Biden administration’s weak diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics to, well, pretty much any stupid thing that LeBron James says or does, China pops up in sports headlines a lot lately.
These facts aren’t lost on legendary sports broadcaster Bob Costas, who appeared on CNN and had some strong words for the NBA over its codependent relationship with China, as well as China’s tendency toward censorship.
“The NBA is up to its neck in China,” Costas said. “China is a huge sports market. Basketball is especially popular there. But they will put up with not even the slightest criticism.
“Back a couple of years ago when Daryl Morey, then the GM of the Houston Rockets, tweeted ‘Stand with Hong Kong,’ Rockets games were suddenly off the air for an extended period in China. And the Rockets are one of the most popular teams there because Yao Ming was the first big Chinese star in the NBA. More recently, Enes Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, spoke out against China. Same thing: Celtics games are gone.
“I guarantee you that the feed of this conversation [on CNN] is gone.”
Boom! But Costas wasn’t done. He then turned his fire on Nike and individual athletes who cozy up to China:
“By the way, a lot of Nike’s goods that benefit the likes of Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James is made in China. And those outspoken individuals — and in many cases, I think millions of Americans would agree with their positions on domestic issues, but they are conspicuously mum when it comes to China, and no matter what the issues are here, and they are serious issues, they pale alongside what’s going on there.”
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Costas has been critical of China for decades. He spoke out during the 1996 Olympics about human rights abuses and totalitarianism in China, going so far as to compare them to the former Soviet Union. Those comments led NBC, who broadcast the Olympics, to apologize to China for Costas’ “hurt[ing] their feelings.” That apology came a month after the Olympics had ended while Costas was on vacation and unavailable to speak for himself.
He also spoke out against China on CNN during the Daryl Morey controversy.
“It's the same China playbook.”
Bob Costas reflects on remarks he made about China during the 1996 Olympics and the Houston Rockets general manager tweeting his support for Hong Kong protesters this year with @smerconish. https://t.co/De5ZqydDji pic.twitter.com/YTqgUPjZjM— CNN (@CNN) December 21, 2019
In an era when sports media and some newscasters are afraid to speak out about the horrific things that China does on a regular basis, Costas comes across as courageous. Good for him. I hope he’ll continue to be unafraid and tell the truth about China.
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