A Chinese broadcasting company has reportedly dropped the Philadelphia 76ers along with the Houston Rockets amid the ongoing fallout between China and Daryl Morey.
Tencent has only been offering text updates of the games, according to a report published Tuesday by The Straits Times. The Houston Rockets games are also only offered in text updates, the outlet reported. The broadcasting company stopped screen games last season following Morey’s tweet in support of Hong Kong.
NBA games are indeed being streamed in China via Tencent but it is worth noting that the Houston/OKC game that was postponed and the Philadelphia/Washington game tonight (Daryl Morey’s new team, of course, is the 76ers) were on Tencent’s list for text-only coverage (sans video)
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) December 24, 2020
State broadcaster CCTV has not aired any NBA games since the season opener on Dec 22, the outlet reported.
Morey tweeted “Fight for Freedom, stand with Hong Kong” back in October of 2019. He later deleted the tweet, although the NBA somewhat backed Morey’s right to free speech. (RELATED: Daryl Morey Thought He ‘Might Never Work In The NBA Again’ After Tweet Criticizing China)
Tencent has continued to air NBA games, but the season-opener between the 76ers and the Washington Wizards on Dec. 23 was only available with text, according to the outlet.
Morey claimed he felt he might not ever work in the NBA again following his tweet, but said he was willing “to go down for” speaking out about Hong Kong in an interview with ESPN.
“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 told the outlet at the time. “But I love working, I love what I do, and I didn’t want that to happen.”
Morey resigned from the Houston Rockets in October of 2020 and is now the President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers.