Bobby Burack
Videos by OutKick
The Biden administration announced on Monday that the United States will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics in protest of China’s human rights abuses.
On CNN Tuesday, Michael Smerconish called the effort, which does not extend to Team USA athletes, “half-assed.” Smerconish is correct, the boycott is meaningless. However, former Olympic broadcaster Bob Costas said he believes that NBA players will see the symbolic boycott as a threat to their relationship with China.
“The NBA is up to its neck in China,” Costas said. “China is a huge sports market. Basketball is especially popular there. But they will put up with not even the slightest criticism.
“Back a couple of years ago when Daryl Morey, then the GM of the Houston Rockets, tweeted ‘Stand with Hong Kong,’ Rockets games were suddenly off the air for an extended period in China. And the Rockets are one of the most popular teams there because Yao Ming was the first big Chinese star in the NBA. More recently, Enes Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, spoke out against China. Same thing: Celtics games are gone.
“I guarantee you that the feed of this conversation [on CNN] is gone.”
Olympic broadcaster Bob Costas unloads in the Olympics. "What is with the IOC and their affinity for authoritarian nations?"
He and Michael Smerconish then call out the NBA for being in bed with China. pic.twitter.com/qayvD6zrgf— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 8, 2021
Costas then turned his focus to Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James:
“By the way, a lot of Nike’s goods that benefit the likes of Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James is made in China. And those outspoken individuals — and in many cases, I think millions of Americans would agree with their positions on domestic issues, but they are conspicuously mum when it comes to China, and no matter what the issues are here, and they are serious issues, they pale alongside what’s going on there.”
Costas was one of the first and last sportscasters to speak out against China. In 1996, Costas, while hosting the event for NBC, said China was the one nation that had the means and the motivation to replicate what the old Soviet Bloc and the Eastern Bloc did with their sports machine. Costas said there was then an effort, “orchestrated from Beijing,” to have him fired.
Credit to Costas and Smerconish for speaking out on this topic. No one at ESPN, CBS, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, or NBC Sports will cover LeBron, China, or Kaepernick honestly — so the cable news industry has to. And, surprisingly, CNN is doing so right now.
Related at OutKick: CNN’s Jake Tapper Blasts NBA, Hollywood and Wall Street Over Relationships with China
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Honesty coming from CNN airwaves? Hope the Devil has a good winter coat down there…
… a broken clock is right twice a day…
CNN merger coming up and the Political Activist Newscasters are scrambling to distance themselves from the Woketardeness and appear objective so that if/when the new owner cleans house and tries to start over and build credibility at the Clown News Network – they don’t get axed*?
“Axed” as in “fired”;
not “axed” as in “I axed La’Quesha if they was goin’ on a mostly peaceful looting spree.”
thats freaking funny shit.
Sorry, didn`t understand that last part since I don`t speak ebonics. Better get Ball licker in here to translate for me.
Agree, this is hilarious! Especially your second paragraph.
Smerconish is a little bit more “moderate” than most Clown News Nitwits, but don’t confuse him with a die hard conservative. That said, he probably was the most likely person on that network to even address the issue in the first place.
As for Costas, his response was a rare moment of common sense from a sports media guy who tends to be insufferable.
NBA lost me a long time ago. The bs with players and china just reconfirms to me that i made the right choice.
LOL.. when the Feds put NBA refs in jail for “fixing” games, I was D-O-N-E with that crap… The odd part was that the whole world seemed to just ignore it, like it never happened, like they were just a few bad apples in the bunch… BS! That whole organization is broken.. how many “Finals” have NOT gone to, at least a “game 6” to maximize revenue?
all “Pro” sports are rigged – the league gets what it wants.
Where did he “rip’ into James and Kaepernick? He and the host talked about the NBA in general terms and never mentioned their names. I want to like Outkick and I want it to be an accurate, authority e voice to counter the ESPN garbage. Click bait titles like this don’t help accomplish that goal.
The Ringer? Bleacher Report? Bwahahahaha!! Hack leftist propaganda outlets is all they are.