I'm in the same boat as you. I pay for LP and was rather outspoken about my disdain for ballstreams. I loathe LP. The random ass blackouts, national coverage randomly picking up games, having to watch anything on TNT instead of just a rockets stream. But, in principle, I just don't like piracy.
I hear that too, but much about the NBA revolves around the star power of NBA stars like Lebron and the business around the stars with clothing, endorsements, etc. The NBA is big business first and foremost. The more one looks at this, the more it looks to be such a ridiculously suspicious calculated overreaction. The Chinese are smart enough to know Trump and know how this can be used. If you know anything about him, you can imagine how he would react to the thought of him sitting in the Oval Office saying “I alone saved the NBA!!” with a room surrounded by black star athletes all kissing his a$$. At least in his mind that’s how he sees it playing out which is why Xi would jump at the opportunity to hold the entire league hostage to dangle that massive carrot in front of Trump in trade talks. Some things just make too much sense if you take two steps back for a minute.
Lelz The German one had 4-5 ppl doing it. It was a insignificant test match where the Amateur club wanted them gone too otherwise they didn't get sponsor money from the Chinese. (In the picture you see German team arguing with those fans to leave even, the Chinese just flatout left the 'amateurish stadium'.) Some unknown U20 Chinese team wanted to test against German amateur clubs. It was a minor incident. UEFA wasn't Involved! The Chinese dun care that much about the CBA, but NBA got tons of fans. Naturally.
But in Lyon the stadium put up a huge tibetan flag and that was because they knew the chinese were broadcasting. What happened? Nothing. The only reason I know about it is because of the Morey situation. The reaction is night and day.
China will reveal weakness if they don't cancel the games. This is a positive sign for the NBA. Shows that China cares somewhat about not disappointing the people that have a vested interest in the NBA (whether it's fans or investors).
Football stars are also multimillionaires ,some of the highest paid athletes in the world with huge endorsemenst and have many more fans worldwide than nba stars. Do you think that UEFA and the various leagues around europe aren't big business?
Well, could just have a lot to do with Nets having a Chinese owner Joe Tsai, who already expressed the need for US media to understand the importance of sovereignty. And previously: Tsai called Hong Kong protesters a "separatist movement".[26][27] He wrote: "The one thing that is terribly misunderstood, and often ignored, by the western press and those critical of China is that 1.4 billion Chinese citizens stand united when it comes to the territorial integrity of China and the country’s sovereignty over her homeland. This issue is non-negotiable."[26]
Could be that the NBA Cares program already got thru to Chinese big cities. Although China is really weak at ball sports, team sports, I think Basketball produced more serious talents than soccer in recent years. The National team was always #1 in Azia whereas the Soccer team has dropped to #7 or #8 in Asia.
So is basketball more popular than football in China? If China won a WC would people be more happy if it was in football or in basketball for example?
Hard to say because if you just go with the numbers of people participating yeah. Soccer is more of a leisure sports - more watchers but less participants. Xi is a huge soccer fan and built tons of soccer elementary grass roots schools. He would want to watch China host one WC and make it far......so he can rule for 40 years.
Yes, but your point indirectly makes my point for me. ITS ABOUT THE TRADE WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. The reason why Xi's government went to defcon 5 on the Morey tweet, and not protests within the UEFA is because the NBA is an American business with a megaphone to both the American media and directly to the person Xi is negotiating with on a trade deal. They are reacting extremely and holding the NBA hostage because of the trade war with the US. That's the difference in Xi's reaction to this scandal & why his government sent out the propaganda & the bots to the extreme instead of shrugging it off.
I agreed with your point in the first place lol. While this overreaction is kinda typical for CCP and China on the other hand, we see clear double standards here that show that there is specific political motivation.
Exactly. I believe you are overseas so you might not be familiar with our day to day national nightmare in the oval office, but I will bet you 100 dollars right now its only a matter of time before you know who gets his sticky fingers in this situation if he isn't already. Nothing would motivate him more than to force Lebron James to kiss his ring. This is as inevitable as the sun coming up tomorrow.
Tencent digital rights to stream the games is $1.5B for the next 5 years. That’s $300M a year, owners and players split the pool. Each owner probably gets $5 -6M a year just on the streaming rights. This doesn’t include sponsorships and merchandise sales and the various other things related to the NBA.
