All official Chinese partners have suspended ties with the NBA following a controversial tweet by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey about Hong Kong.
The 11 wholly-owned Chinese companies listed as official partners of NBA China have suspended doing business with the league following the controversy around a Morey tweet about Hong Kong.
China's biggest online travel website CTrip announced that it has "dropped all NBA-related tickets and travel products" from its platform while Mengniu Dairy, one of the country's top milk producers, said it would suspend "all commercial cooperation with the NBA."
Meanwhile, Chinese fast-food chain Dicos shared plans  to suspend "all marketing and publicity activities" with the NBA as skin care brand Wzun said it would "terminate all cooperation with the NBA."
The decision of these Chinese companies come on the heels of outrage from Morey expressing his support for the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong via Twitter. In the post, which has been deleted, he wrote: "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong."
Speaking to Kyodo News, a local news outlet in Japan, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed support for Morey "in terms of his ability to exercise his freedom of expression." The following day, Silver released an official statement that the NBA could not regulate what "players, employees and team owners" say, and that the league was motivated by "far more than growing our business."
He added: "It is inevitable that people around the world — including from America and China — will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences."
This sparked further anger from people in China and several NBA partners in the country have expressed that China's sovereignty over Hong Kong is non-negotiable, criticizing the league for how it handled the situation.
The issue could have huge financial repercussions for the NBA as the Chinese market makes up at least 10% of the its current revenue, and could reach 20% by 2030.
Houston Rockets superstar James Harden apologized to the Chinese fans but assured that the issue would not distract him and his team.
