Los Angeles—Daryl Morey, embarking on his first season as Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations, told ESPN in an article published Wednesday he once feared his tweet last year supporting Hong Kong activists could end his NBA career.
Morey was general manager of the Houston Rockets when he tweeted: “Fight for Freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” referring to protests Beijing calls separatist and seditious.
The tweet triggered a fierce backlash in China —the NBA’s most lucrative market outside the United States—and the rift cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars.
When Morey stepped down in October of this year after guiding Rockets basketball operations since 2007, China’s state broadcaster—which blacked out NBA games for a year—hinted he had “paid a price” for the tweet.
Two weeks later, however, Morey landed with the 76ers, although he acknowledged in his ESPN interview that the firestorm had caused him to wonder if he would end up out of the league.
“In the last 12 months, I had moments where I thought I might never work in the NBA again, for reasons I was willing to go down for,” Morey said. “But I love working, I love what I do, and I didn’t want that to happen.”
Morey said he remained “very comfortable with what I did” even though he didn’t anticipate the outrage he would face.
“You don’t want the second-most powerful government on Earth mad at you, if you can avoid it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Golden State forward Draymond Green will miss the Warriors’ Christmas Day game against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday.
A right foot injury had already sidelined Green for the Warriors’ season opener, a blowout loss to the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday.
Green had missed all of training camp and the team’s pre-season games after testing positive for coronavirus. He practiced with the team on Wednesday but hasn’t yet been cleared to play.
Rookie center James Wiseman, the second overall selection in the NBA draft, scored 19 points and pulled down six rebounds in an encouraging NBA debut for the Warriors on Tuesday.
But the Warriors clearly could have done with the veteran leadership of Green in the 125-99 loss to the Nets.
Wiseman got the start in his first NBA game, but Kerr said he would continue to experiment with starting lineups.
“Everything is fluid right now, everything is a possibility,” Kerr said. “We don’t have a rotation, we don’t have a semblance of an identity.
“That’s what we’re trying to build. So, I think it’s important to reward guys now if they play well.”