Daryl Morey, former general manager of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, uploaded a picture on Twitter last October in support of Hong Kong’s anti-revision movement, which created a storm. He recently recalled the incident in an interview and confessed that he was worried about the safety of his family after the incident broke out and once thought his NBA career was over, but he said he did not regret the decision to support the Hong Kong protesters.
In an interview with Entertainment and Sports Television (ESPN), Murray noted, “I’ve had moments in the last 12 months where I thought I might never work in the NBA again, for reasons that I’m willing to pay for.” Murray told ESPN while discussing his new role with the 76ers, and said, “But I love the job, I love my job, and I don’t want that to happen.”
After Morey tweeted about the anti-revision movement last year, some NBA stars and Rockets officials issued a series of statements expressing regret, emphasizing that Morey’s “inappropriate comments were primarily a personal expression of free speech” and had nothing to do with the team, in an attempt to appease official Chinese Communist Party opinion. In response to the controversy over the incident, NBA superstar LeBron James, when asked whether Murray should be punished, said he did not want to get into a “verbal dispute” with Murray, but he thought Murray “did not know enough about the situation before speaking “.
The statements of James and others were also criticized by public opinion, the media and politicians in the United States for self-censorship in the face of profit, and for hypocrisy on the topic of American civil rights that they usually preach. What James didn’t know was that Murray had befriended some Hong Kong residents while attending MIT Business School and had a deep understanding of the challenges they faced living there, ESPN reported. The report said Murray’s decision to tweet his support was not hasty or uninformed, but a conscious show of solidarity with those he knew well.
Months after the incident, when asked in an interview if he regretted his decision to support the Hong Kong protests, Murray paused for a few seconds before replying, “I’m very comfortable with what I did.” Nonetheless, Murray never expected his tweets to spark such a sharp storm. Murray said he was at one point seriously worried about the safety of his wife and two children, according to information provided to him. “I was actually really, really worried,” Murray said. He declined to elaborate on the specific threat. “Fortunately, I have (contact) with different people who are assisting me and giving me advice on how to handle it,” he said, adding that, hopefully, I’ve been able to get to the point where we have some level of safety.
Murray said, “But I’m very concerned. You don’t want the second most powerful government on the planet to be mad at you if you can avoid it. In this case, I can’t do that.” On the evening of Oct. 4, 2019, U.S. time, Murray posted a tweet on his personal Twitter account in support of Hong Kong’s anti-revisionist protest movement that read, “Fighting for freedom, with Hong Kong.” The tweet was deleted from Murray’s Twitter feed shortly afterwards, including a tweet criticizing President Trump that was left intact.
In response to Morey’s comments, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta tweeted, “Morey does not represent the Houston Rockets,” and later tweeted, “Morey is a good manager and the team has nothing to do with politics.” The team has nothing to do with politics. During the controversy, NBA President Adam Silver said on Oct. 8 last year, “I do know there are consequences to free speech; we will have to live with those consequences.” He continued, “For those who question our motives, it’s far more important than growing our business.” The NBA estimates that the league has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue as a result of the controversy. However, the Rockets have steadfastly retained Morey, despite repeated calls from Communist Party officials to fire him after the incident.
Morey departed from the Rockets on Oct. 15 of this year. He said he chose to voluntarily resign in order to spend time with his family. Morey then agreed to a five-year contract with another NBA team, the 76ers, and became the team’s president of basketball affairs.
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