I confess: the primary reason for this is that I just wanted an excuse to post this photo of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, poster boy for corporate sports.

Yowza! I was going to make this a “Caption This Photo” contest, but without context it’s nothing:

NBA Commissioner: “We Certainly Didn’t Apologize To The Chinese Government”
Hotair | 10/17/2019 | John Sexton

Commissioner Adam Silver told TMZ Sports that’s he’s bothered so many people think the NBA knuckled under and apologized to China over Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong’s freedom.

The initial statement read, “We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.”

“While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ education themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.” Silver explained to TMZ Sports … “It bothered me that in saying we regretted upsetting hundreds of millions of Chinese fans while at the same time supporting Daryl Morey’s speech, it bothered me, I’d say, that it was interpreted as an apology to the Chinese government.”

“We certainly didn’t apologize to the Chinese government.”

. . .

But the new version of reality being offered by Silver and Stern also fails to mention a couple of other things, starting with the fact that the NBA published two different versions of the statement, one in English and one in Mandarin for Chinese fans. As the Associated Press pointed out, the two statements were very different in tone.

. . .

Silver and Stern also fail to mention the apology to China by [Houston Rockets star] James Harden: “We apologize. You know, we love China. We love playing there.”