Steve Kerr regrets his silence during NBA's China fiasco, says he'd back Daryl Morey in similar situation

The NBA and its players have been lauded by everyone for standing up for social issues and racial equality of late.

However, it was only last year that the league as a whole, and the likes of LeBron James and Steve Kerr in particular, caught a lot of heat for their positions on the Hong Kong issue.

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NBA's stance on Hong Kong freedom movement

Hong Kong has been rallying support for its freedom movement from China, and the NBA would have smelled of roses if at least some of the icons in the league had spoken out. However, as things transpired, only 2017-18 NBA Executive of the Year Daryl Morey had something to say about the issue.

Morey's stance was frowned upon by LeBron James at the time, who said that Morey was either 'misinformed or not really educated about the situation'. Steve Kerr, a normally outspoken person when it comes to issues like this, said that he preferred not to be a sound bite.

The Golden State Warriors' head coach was also roundly criticized by many people, including President Donald Trump. Many saw this as a double standard from Steve Kerr.

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Steve Kerr's recent statement

Anti-Government Protests in Hong Kong during NBA's preseason tour

Candace Buckner of the Washington Post spoke recently to the Golden State Warriors' head coach of 6 years. Steve Kerr seemed repentant on his stance from that time:

I would first of all back up Daryl. I would just say Daryl, as an American, has a right to free speech. He can say anything he wants and we should support him in that and that's the main message.

We have hundreds, probably thousands of American companies in China and we do business with them. The NBA does business with them. They have a very different system than ours. Every company that does business understands the system there is different and you perform this dance and it's no question that the NBA is part of that.

The NBA has quite a lot of vested interests in China. 27% of Adidas's manufacturing plants are in mainland China - Adidas was the NBA's official kit manufacturer till 2017.

Nike has notoriously been linked to forced Uyghur labour in China of late. Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson has a contract with Chinese company Anta. Dwyane Wade was Li Ning's signature shoe athlete.

Steve Kerr may be regretting his stance on the Hong Kong issue and Uyghur concentration camps, but the utilitarian view of the issue suggests he was right to not speak up.

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