The NBA is currently at odds with China after Houston Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey, sent out a tweet in support of the Hong Kong protests. In the wake of Morey's tweet, a few of the NBA Cares events in Shanghai have been cancelled and the two Lakers vs Nets games scheduled to take place in China are now in jeopardy, according to USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt.
Enter: Dennis Rodman.
The Worm took to social media on Wednesday to request to be a part of the conversation when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver heads to Shanghai. Says Rodman in a very robotic voice and a Make America Great Again hat, "Commissioner Adam Silver, I know a thing or two about diplomacy. Book me a ticket to Shanghai with you. Ambassador Rodman."
Silver issued a statement Tuesday, explaining that the league “will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues.”
“It is inevitable that people around the world – including from America and China – will have different viewpoints over different issues,” Silver said in the statement. “It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences.”
“This is about far more than growing our business...Values of equality, respect and freedom of expression have long defined the NBA -- and will continue to do so. As an American-based basketball league operating globally, among our greatest contributions are these values of the game.”