The NBA has one more game left to play Saturday morning in China, but as they move cities from Shanghai to Shenzhen, on the Hong Kong border, the league has already gotten ahead of the next step of their trip by announcing they will not be speaking to the media for the remainder of their trip.
The NBA told USA TODAY’s National NBA writer Jeff Zillgitt that the league will not speak to the media for the remainder of their time in China.
The Chinese government cancelled several NBA events this week but allowed Thursday’s game to go on as planned in Shanghai, but without the typical media availability that accompanies NBA games.
The tenuous situation that followed Daryl Morey’s tweet signaling support for protestors in Hong Kong has put the NBA teams in China in a difficult and at times frustrating position. Meanwhile, it appears the Chinese government is trying to cool down some of the anti-NBA sentiment that they’ve been fanning the flames of for the last few days.
So the game set for tomorrow in Shenzhen is set to go on as planned, but it will once again happen in a cone of silence that has defined the past week for the NBA in China.
