Crisis: NBA Hong Kong

This is group project,

My part in this project is( the evaluation only). You (essaypro) have only The Evaluation to work on. In this part you need to evaluate the crisis first then evaluate the NBA‘s strategy. Also, you need to evaluate My classmate’s strategy to solve the crisis.

My classmate work;

Daryl Morey is the former NBA Houston Rockets general manager. He was born in 1972 and graduated from MIT Sloan School of Business, where he studied digital analysis. Morey once served as the deputy general manager of the Celtics. In March 2006, he became Dawson’s deputy and worked for the Rockets, and in 2007 he became the general manager of the Rockets. In 2019, he resigned as general manager of the Rockets due to NBA Hong Kong-related speech disputes.

The cause of this crisis was that on October 5, 2019, Rockets general manager Morey uploaded a photo with a sign showing “Fight for freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” on his Twitter account. The content of the photo immediately aroused strong anger and dissatisfaction among Chinese fans. After the incident happened, Morey’s own handling of this public opinion is to delete the original tweet and post two other tweets to clarify that these remarks are just his personal thoughts and have nothing to do with the team, Rockets, and NBA. Such a simple explanation without the meaning of apology cannot be accepted by Chinese fans. At the same time, a number of Chinese companies, institutions, and media have seriously voiced their decision to terminate cooperation with the NBA and Rockets. They asked the NBA, Rockets, and Morey to apologize for “Morey’s remarks.” Since there was no official response for a long time, the Morey crisis continued to ferment, and the NBA had lost a number of corporations in the Chinese market. Then the owner of the Rockets, Feltita, tweeted that “Morey cannot represent the Houston Rockets” and “Morey is a good manager, and the team has nothing to do with politics” in response to it. The crisis has happened so far. The NBA has not yet given an official positive answer. Until October 7, 2019, the NBA released its first official response to the Morey Crisis. In the statement, they expressed their disappointment with Morey, their support for free speech, and their hope to spread positive energy in international cultural exchanges in the future.

However, Chinese people would not accept this statement because they still haven’t seen the apology. After that, China’s resistance to the NBA has become more serious. The NBA’s economic losses caused by this crisis have also become more serious. On October 8th, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made his voice for the first time, stating that he and the NBA League support Morey’s speech because of freedom of speech. It caused another backlash in China. For example, major celebrities, medium began to cancel participation in NBA activities, and major sports channels also announced the cancellation of broadcasting NBA games. The boycott has continued until October this year, China Central Television(CCTV) announced the resumption of the live broadcast of the NBA games, and this crisis had finally come to an end.

Our team focuses on how Huston Rockets and NBA can heal their loss in Chinese market while rebuilding their reputation in China. Although Morey’s tweet only represents his own political opinion, most people in China tend to blur the personal opinion with the whole organization’s opinion. Since Daryl Morey was the general manager of the Houston Rockets at the time, the mass majority of people in China believe his speech represents the whole Houston Rockets, some Chinese people even believe his opinion represents NBA’s opinion. Moreover, although Morey’s tweet should be protected by freedom of speech, there is no such thing in China, and once populism gets triggered, it is very hard to stop without some good strategies.

A few hours after Daryl Morey’s mediated Twitter incident, the Houston Rockets’ owner Tilman Fertitta tweeted that “Morey can’t represent the Houston Rockets” and then tweeted that “Morey is a good manager and the team has nothing to do with politics.” Meanwhile, Morey deletes his tweet and says that his opinion is his own opinion, it is not about the NBA and Huston Rocket’s opinion. After a few days, the NBA starts to react to Morey’s tweet until Oct 7th, 2019. NBA chief communications officer Michael bass issued a statement to make the official first response to Morey’s previous controversial remarks: “We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA., the values of the legal support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.”

NBA officials should respond as soon as possible after the incident. Instead of giving an official reply three or four days after it happened. This behavior let many people think the NBA is indifferent to the matter and it deeply infected the reputation of the NBA. Meanwhile, Morey’s tweet hurt Huston Rockets’ Chinese fans. And it also affects NBA and Houston Rockets’ brand products in Chinese market. Many Chinese live broadcast companies and brand companies stop the corporation with Houston Rockets. This move will bring huge losses to the NBA market in China.

Here are three strategies the NBA and Huston Rocket should do to rebuild their reputation in Chinese market.

First of all, NBA officials should respond to this incident as soon as possible. An earlier response can better reflect the professionalism of the NBA team in crisis public relations. At the same time, the early response will help to recover part of the NBA’s loss and reputation in China, which makes people believe that the NBA can deal with this situation quickly.

Secondly, the NBA should temporarily suspend the General Manager of the Houston Rockets Daryl Morey. Since his tweet essentially caused a huge loss of Rockets’ share in the Chinese market, and most of the Chinese Rockets fans would like to see him be “punished” by hurting their feelings.

Finally, Houston Rockets should invite former NBA player Yao Ming to help them mediate this crisis. Since Yao Ming is a hall of fame player who used to play for Rockets. And he is the only player in China who has been in the NBA Hall of fame. Most of the Chinese people love Rockets because of Yao. Inviting Yao Ming will make it easier for Chinese fans to accept the strategies of the NBA and the Houston Rockets to deal with this crisis.

Timeline

Oct 5, 2019

Daryl Morey and Houston Rockets’ owner Tilman Fertitta, alongside NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, published the statement in China.

Oct 15, 2019

Temporarily suspend Daryl Morey’s position in Houston Rockets, wait until the public opinion in China wears out a little more, then resume his position.

Nov 1, 2019

Yao Ming held a speech and fans meeting at Shanghai Indoor Stadium, home of the Chinese basketball team Shanghai Sharks, to mediate Chinese people’s anger with Houston Rockets.

The operation started on Oct 5, 2019, one day after Morey’s tweet was published and deleted. Instead of waiting for the public opinion to cool down itself and not act for several days like the NBA did, we publish the statement right after mass majorities in China have known the news. Our statement will be similar to the NBA’s original statement, making it clear that one person’s own opinion is different from the whole team and the whole organization’s opinion. Moreover, address that NBA and Huston Rockets highly respect Chinese fans, and they care about Chinese market. On the other hand, Daryl Morey himself will also have his own statement, emphasizing again his tweet only represents his own opinion instead of the Houston Rockets and NBA’s. Since our strategy is faster than what the NBA did, fans in China will be more convinced that the NBA respects them.

After ten days, as the reality also suggested that the whole crisis cooled down quite a lot, at least Morey’s tweet does not damage other NBA teams’ reputation in China any more. NBA and Houston Rockets should temporarily suspend Morey’s position as the general manager of Rockets, this would make Chinese Rockets fans satisfied since the people who hurt their feelings have been punished. After the whole crisis slips out of the public’s field of view, Morey can regain his job.

Last but not least, Yao Ming would be the perfect mediator in this situation, since he is a hall of fame class player of the NBA, who is also famous and respectable not only in China but also internationally. Yao is also the current chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association. Moreover, Yao is the best Chinese basketball player of all time to most of Chinese basketball fans. On November 1st, Yao would hold a speech and fan meeting at Shanghai Indoor Stadium, which is the home of the Chinese basketball team Shanghai Sharks, this team was once owned by Yao Ming, and all the elements would bring more Chinese basketball fans to this event. Yao Ming would mediate people’s anger over Houston Rockets in this event, he can show an edited film about his past full of clips when he played in Rockets, especially times with Tracy McGrady, another one of the most loved NBA players in China. After this event, we believe the ban of the live streaming Rockets’ games in China would end much earlier than the reality, the core is to manipulate public opinion.

****My part on this project is( the evaluation) start your writing here:

****These are the links my classmate used in our group project:

https://buchananpr.com/2019/10/nba-pr-crisis

https://www.vox.com/2019/10/7/20902700/daryl-morey-tweet-china-nba-hong-kong

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49956385

https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-china-feud-timeline-daryl-morey-tweet-hong-kong-protests-2019-10