via nlpc.org:
The “woke” NBA – whose players (with few exceptions) wouldn’t stand for the Star-Spangled Banner but do stand human rights abuses in China – had a bumpy reopening last week following this year’s shutdown due to COVID-19.
So did one of its top broadcast partners, ESPN.
As Breitbart (aggregating reports from Outkick.com and The Athletic) reported on Sunday, NBA/ESPN saw its television ratings drop on Friday night following the numbers the league saw on the night of its return from dormancy on Thursday. The sports-starved American public apparently doesn’t have an appetite for millionaire athletes complaining about “systemic racism” while they kneel for the National Anthem and at the same time refuse to decry human rights abuses by the communist Chinese.
Meanwhile ESPN reported about the NBA’s involvement with a training academy in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where millions of Uigher Muslims are surveilled, harassed and imprisoned for their beliefs and resistance to the government. The article, written by investigative reporters (and brothers) Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada, cited several American coaches placed at academies in China who were sent to find and develop new talent for the NBA. However, the problem with this arrangement was that the academies were owned and run by the Chinese government.
Among the findings from the article:
American coaches at three NBA training academies in China told league officials their Chinese partners were physically abusing young players and failing to provide schooling, even though commissioner Adam Silver had said that education would be central to the program, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the complaints…
American coaches were frequently harassed and surveilled in Xinjiang, the sources said. One American coach was detained three times without cause…A former league employee compared the atmosphere when he worked in Xinjiang to “World War II Germany.”…
One American coach who worked for the NBA in China described the project as “a sweat camp for athletes.”
At least two coaches left their positions in response to what they believed was mistreatment of young players…
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Collusion flashback: A Rundown Of Major U.S. Corporate Media’s Business Ties To China.
h/t GR