Moe Factz with Adam curry for October 14 2019. This is episode
number 11. Hey Moe, how you doing?
I'm doing pretty good Adam, how about yourself
doing real good. You know, I went to a no agenda meet up here
in Austin last Thursday, and a lot of people complimented
complimented the show, I want to make sure you heard that people
are really loving it.
I'm glad to hear that and I'm on my YouTube channel, I get a lot
of feedback that people are loving the podcasts as well that
are not no agenda listeners. As of right now, I'm trying to
convert them but
it's okay. We bring them in with Moe Factz, and then we take it
from there. Right? reminder for everyone. This is a podcast
which is produced under the value for value system, which
means you listened to it, if you got any value from it, please
return that. And we'd like to do that at MoeFund.com mo e fund
me.com keep the show going and just show the value that you got
from it. It's a way for us to measure how much how good we're
doing. So no, I'll remind you at the end of the show as well. Now
uh, you already told me what's going to go on with today's
program. I'm very excited because I started looking into
this myself. I think sometime maybe about a week ago. And then
once you once you sent me a note saying oh Monday we'll do this
I'm like okay, I'm just gonna kick back relax. I thought you
know, then you put me to work like doing clips and stuffs like
seriously Moe we got to talk about the distribution of a
workload here.
You're stepping on my beats man. I look upon sports one is my
beat Okay, so
what can I tell you? I mean, you know when I'm just chillin I
look a little watch little Fs one check out my man Jason. You
know, I know what I'm up to speed.
Yeah, I was when I was listening to the show yesterday. I was
like, Man, he's all over my clips. So so for the for the
people that is not in the know. And are not old school hip hop
fans. You might not might not have a hint by now that we're
talking about the NBA, and China and I'm going ons between
between the two. So let's clip heavy today. So I want to jump
right in. And let's just get clip one first, some background.
About more protests in Hong Kong today and tonight the conflict
between demonstrators and police is impacting Houston. The
Houston Rockets are facing backlash because General Manager
Daryl Morey tweeted support for those protesters. Stephanie
Whitfield shows us how one little tweak can have huge
consequences.
The rockets may call Houston home, but they have fans all
over the world. In fact, the team is incredibly popular in
China. That's why a now deleted tweet from General Manager Daryl
Morey has led to major backlash. I'll explain. For weeks there
have been massive protests in Hong Kong, which started because
of a controversial extradition bill. The demonstrations have
since morphed into a bigger fight for democracy in the semi
autonomous territory. Well, on Friday, the rockets GM tweeted a
picture that read fight for freedom stand with Hong Kong
owner Tillman Fertitta quickly stepped in saying Maury does not
speak for the rockets. We are not a political organization.
Well tonight, Daryl Morey apologized on Twitter, saying in
part, he did not intend his tweet to cause any offense to
rockets fans and friends of his in China. But the situation had
spiraled anyway. And now the Chinese Basketball Association
announced its ending cooperation with the Houston team. And the
company that broadcast the NBA in China says it won't cover
rockets games. Forbes estimates NBA China is worth more than $4
billion. And thanks to Chinese Hall of Famer Yao Ming, the
rockets are one of the most popular teams, and that's why a
tweet could cost the franchise millions. And some fans
speculate it could cost it's GM his job. Stephanie Whitfield, k
h o u 11. News.
Yeah, this was great. This was so interesting to hear not
following sports at all, as you've already pointed out, yes.
All of a sudden, I was like, Oh, that's interesting. So what's
the deal with China and the NBA? Um, I really didn't know
anything about it.
Okay, so um, and I actually have a clip slip here, but I'll give
you a little background. A little thing I didn't know in my
digging up. Why this is such a big deal. Basketball is Chinese
national sport. And it has been since like the early 1900s When
the YMCA went over, really and yeah, and I'm hate us lost that
clip in the shuffle but yeah, it mean it's that's why they have
this is such a big deal. Even Mao, he was a big fan of
basketball.
And that explains Kim Jong goons fashion fascination with it as
well. Of course North Korea being closely allied to China.
Yes. So all this, you're saying is coming together? And as they
say, Yeah, I mean, I know you're not a huge sports fan, but he
was he's probably the most famous Asian basketball star
ever. When he came into the NBA, they even kind of like handpick
what markets he would go to. It was either Houston, he had to be
one with a large Asian population. Right? It had to be
Houston, New York, and I believe, like Golden State,
which is in San Francisco. Sure. Sure. Which, which is crazy.
Because a draft is supposed to be randomized. You know, it's a
random.
Wait a minute, but you're telling me there's funny stuff
going on there? I'm shocked. Whoa. All right. Something's
sports.
Okay, but but we can see here with when big money's involved.
The NBA is, you know, it,
it looks at his interest. First. It's
a business of course, it's it's a business kind of covering as
some kind of philanthropic we're just organizing the game type
deal, but it's huge.
Yes. And as we're gonna see here, it might be even bigger
than business. But we'll get to that later. So now we have a
crisis of Daryl Morey of the Houston. Right. And Wes, what
was weird that it came from a, I had the franchise, which is most
known to be, you know, aligned with the Chinese market. Right.
So it was weird for him to tweet that out. And I'm doing some
more digging why that happened or what his where that came
from. But let's get into managing the crisis.
At the end of the day, the values of the link support
individuals educating themselves and sharing their views on
matters important to them, which is kind of a non retreat
retreat. The NBA isn't the first nor it will be the last to
tiptoe around China.
No, I think this is a case, as you mentioned yourself, this is
about following the money not following your principles. And I
think you know, we have to say, you know, what makes America
great. It's not winning its leadership. And I think that we
failed to show leadership here. And what they've responded with
that I call it beached on a sludge bank of corporate POF
statement is something that really is a bit vacuous and
lacks the intent and the meaning that it should have.
I'd like to point out this is from me, a business channel,
CNBC, which is interesting by itself. That means something
with business, but also who's the British guy? What is he
doing there?
He is a crisis manager of auction.
Does he work for Hill and Knowlton are one of these
outfits?
I'm not sure where he worked from. I didn't get that
information. But he came in and just to speak on how the NBA
should handle the crisis. And let's let me let me make
something as clear here.
There are certain
networks that are aligned with the NBA due to the television
deals, right. And other ones that are not aligned so they can
speak freely on how they truly feel about the NBA. So you have
abc, ESPN, TNT, all these guys are have NBA deal TV deals,
okay. So that's why you hear like, organizations like Fox,
NBC, they don't have any NBA skin in the NBA game. So they
can I want to lay that out for people. That's why when I didn't
really get any ESPN clips, because they're vested so much
so that I couldn't show this on the graphic. And, um, because we
do audio, but they showed a map of China after this happened
with the South China Sea, on the map, as part of China.
Was that during a news cat that was on ESPN, you said which is
yes. Oh, ESPN, where they had like, you know, they knew I
didn't have the big screen behind them. I have like they
showed the map of China. Sure. And some got captured on
YouTube. That's good. It was like a little dotted line in the
sea. Oh, my God highlighting? Yeah,
that's, yeah, that's part of the nine dash line. I think we've
talked about what the thing was on no agenda that the Chinese
has, like in the 60s, I think there was this map and was oh,
here's a couple of dashes in the sea here. Yeah. Don't worry
about that. That's Oh, yeah. That's part of our territory.
Interesting, though, that they would show that and of course,
both ABC and ESPN are owned by Disney now.
Yes, yes. So they're all like say they're all embedded. With
with the NBA I mean as they shoot his business, so but they
have been very careful how they spoke about it where as you
have, like you said, we both listen to Fox Sports, Fox Sports
News, that's one continent. Yeah, they've been kinda like
lose lose weight, how they've been critiquing the NBA. But
let's get let's listen to this continue to listen to the crisis
manager.
What should the NBA do now?
Well, this is a crisis management situation. And what
they've done so far is behaved in what the wrong way is of
crisis, which is kind of to deny to delay to deflect the
situation. So they've denied as their their point of view,
they've deflected it on a girl in terms of making that
statement. Really, what they need to do now is respond
boldly, but that's going to be very difficult because they've
come out of the gate rather shy and rather show how can
they respond boldly to the US audience that is upset without
further upsetting the Chinese?
Well, this is going to be the dilemma. And I think, you know,
this is a marketing dilemma.
Now, this is why this guy charges a lot of money for
crisis management, because he's not telling you anything. It's
just like, well, it's a problem. Big problem. Yeah. Let me send
you another invoice.
He's advertising his skill. Yeah, off the top 60 seconds
without saying anything. That's what a crisis manager does
Dingo. So I think he's kind of advertising like, Hey, if you
really, like when you click on some, if you really want to see
the details, you know, enter your credit card number,
sign up, register. Yeah, don't worry, you won't be charged for
the first month. All right.
All right. So I'm glad you caught that. Oh, that he's not
really saying anything. Which is that him displaying his skill
set? I think? I think so. And I think you picked up on it as
well. Yeah. So let's, let's listen to the crisis manager and
his final take.
You know, we've mentioned that the rockets are sort of China's
home team because of Yao Ming, who played the charge of the
China Basketball Association, could they? Can they kind of
wait this out knowing that that the Chinese will want to
ultimately show this product to its home audience? Or do you
think that this is damage that now casts a pall over the entire
thinking about how many times we come on set, we talk about some
crazy thing, and then a week later, no one remembers, right,
usually here in the United States, usually on social media,
but they'll remember in shambles
China has a lot in America does not. And I think that's the
advantage here, the way the NBA should play. This is exactly
that by next Wednesday, none of us are going to remember what we
ate today. And we're not going to remember this potentially,
that's what they have to hope on. That's going to have to be
their strategy. That cannot be the strategy in China.
Well, that's not going to work that strategy, because Moe Factz
is on the case.
And not only am I not on the case, but many other people are
on the case as well, because it's a political football. Yeah,
this is a huge political football. I found this
fascinating because the business aspects of it, the political
aspects of it, as we know, President Trump is in actual
trade war with China. So and he's no, he's been in a word war
with the NBA. And it's in its players. So you have all these
different players in this game, and for like, you're saying no
pun intended, that are, you know, kind of, they're all
aligned in different ways. And they're all against each other
in other ways. Now. So
what is most interesting to me, because obviously, what's
happening here is China's said, Okay, we're not going to
broadcast the games. But really, there's a, there's a huge deal
behind that. I mean, there's broadcast rights do they do is
that something they pay up front? Do they pay monthly? How
does it work with the merchandising where they just
shut down shoe production? I mean, there's all this stuff
that is, is up in the air. And but we we really don't I mean,
we, we know that the Chinese are upset, but I'm not quite sure
exactly what that means for the NBA. It appears that the
audience numbers in China are five times maybe 10 times what
they are in the US and I can see we're getting a certain term
that's going to hurt him sure, with ad rates and whatever.
Where here's the thing, the Chinese are in a difficult spot
to, because what they're doing now as a lot of posturing, but
can they really shut the NBA off? I don't think so. Good
question. I don't really think so. Because there are people
imagine if you say you're going to show football off in America.
I mean, it's like the equivalent you will have so much outcry
that the government will have to kowtow to the people. And I
think China had to come out and say you know be strong in the
beginning. They had to get on top of the thing fast. Because
if it and we're gonna see later why and it's show, that's just a
teaser, but we're gonna see later why in the show, but
um, my mind my mind is already racing Moe I can think of so
many different things that has gone going on with the Chinese.
I mean, my favorite thought is, maybe they just want to signal
to Trump that, hey, we didn't like Obama either, you know,
something, something like that. It's just, I don't know, it
could be anything.
It's a lot of things. It's not just one thing. It's a lot of
things. And like I said, it's a lot of different players. And
one of those players in this game is the Commissioner, Adam
Silver, as the crisis manager says, he's handled leads very
poorly. And let's listen to him. Listen to a sample of that.
As some of you may know, I issued a statement shortly
before this press conference. Because I thought there was a
lot of misunderstanding out there about our position, I
thought we had been somewhat straightforward, but I can
understand given translations, and given interpretations in
different parts of the world, why there might have been some
confusion. And essentially, what I've said in that statement is
the long head held values of the NBA are to support freedom of
expression, and certainly freedom of expression by members
of the NBA community. And in this case, Daryl Morey as the
General Manager of the Houston Rockets enjoys that right. As
one of our employees. What I also tried to suggest is I
understand that there are consequences from that exercise.
In essence, his freedom of speech, and you know, we will
have to live with those consequences.
I love the Hey, you did not use the transit got lost in
translation dumb Chinese.
You miss you miss out there before that. Oh, what was that?
He says, I thought we were somewhat straightforward. How
are you? Someone works for
you? Good point. Good. Kind of truthful. Come on. try my best.
Right. I was kinda truthful. Yeah, like you said, but what
he's doing is he's moonwalking on a razor blade here.
Nice. Oh, nice. I like that term. I've never heard that.
So because what he's doing is, is you have China on one side
that when these kinds of things happen Chinese want blood. And
what I mean by that is they want somebody fired. They want to see
hedge row. And they want to see somebody getting gotten rid of,
but if he does that, it signals to the spine, something the NBA
has a walk contingency, and their fan base, just because of
what the NBA represents, all halves have has charged to
represent. So if he goes and fires a guy over freedom of
speech, then he loses that market. Right. So now he is like
he's doing this balancing act. And, um, he's been very
unsuccessful with it. I think he needs to call the crisis, man.
Especially, you know, I mean, I remember when Adam Silver became
the commissioner. And I just remember going Wow, man, that
guy looks creepy. He better say something good because just
looking at him you like I don't want to do business with him. It
looks like he's right out of the Addams Family.
He does he he gives you that vibe. Yeah. So so now we have,
like I said before, we have some super world coaches in the NBA
one being Steve Kerr, and the other one being Gregg Popovich.
And so Gregg Popovich tried to do this weird parlor trick. And
I'm not gonna say anything, we'll see if you can catch it.
Freedom of speech, fell great again. So he's been a heck of a
leader in that respect. Very courageous.
And when you compare it to what we've had to live through the
last three years, big difference, big gap there
leadership, wise and courage was, and it wasn't easy for him
to say. He said that in an environment fraught with
possible economic peril. But he sided with the principles that
we all hold dearly. Or most of us do. So in the last three
years,
well, this is interesting what I what I got from that is, it's
Trump's fault. Whatever Trump's fault, man is three years of
that
psychopath,
whenever something goes wrong, I blame
Troy Trump. past three years have been really difficult and
challenging for free speech.
Right, right, right. As manager of what which team? Popovich is
the coach. He's the coach.
Just look, we've determined that this is the White Men Can't Jump
edition of Moe Factz without him correct. So
the sports beat i gotta gotta get you got to beef up your
chops. All right. Well, coaches are referred to as coaches,
Adam. Oh, I'm just pulling your leg. Yeah, he's the he is the
coach of the Spurs San Antonio Spurs. Oh, right
down the road. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, of course I should have known
so.
But he's also he's been pro me anti. He's been anti trump the
whole time. Trump has been in office, and he's been pro woke,
woke agenda. We wish. The strange thing is, and I want to
say this right off the bat. I believe these coaches have to
appear to be woke. Because Gregg Popovich came from a military
background. Let me be clear on that. Actually, military
intelligence, I believe in the Air Force, if I'm not mistaken.
Okay. So
with that said,
him and Steve Kerr, our coaches have two of the biggest
franchises in the NBA, and to recruit what a woke players, you
have to appear to be a woke coach. Because Gregg Popovich
was originally known as being one of the most stringent system
coaches, you know, there is, but he's done this weird pivot in
the last few years and last several years to your SAM being
very liberal. With that says, let's listen to more of Gregg
Gregg Popovich.
So I'm thrilled with what he said, as I said, the courage and
leadership display is off the charts by comparison. We've all
talked about or heard about all the questions that all the
talking heads have, and everybody for the last three
years, what kind of country we want to be, who are we? Where do
we want to go? That sort of thing. Adam, said something that
helps you understand what direction you need to go in,
rather than the cowardice of not being able to respond to
something like the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. And many, many
incidents like that words, leadership and courage, mean
nothing. It's all about personal aggrandizement. So I was
thrilled.
Because, wow, this is one of the best clips of projection that
I've ever heard. Well, you know, we have such crap leadership,
just look at Trump. And it's just horrible. And you know,
it's been so hard and we're, we're real leaders bull crap.
Did you catch the one thing in there? Did you catch that I'm, I
didn't ring my bell too much. Because it was so much stuff I
could bring it on. As one name he brought up in there, I want
to catch it was in the beginning. It may be in the
middle.
I play it again, and people can play along at home. So
I'm thrilled with what he said it as I said, the courage and
leadership displayed is off the charts by comparison. We've all
talked about or heard about all the questions that all the
talking heads have and everybody for the last three years, what
kind of country we want to be. Who are we? Where do we want to
go? That sort of thing. Adam said something that helps you
understand what direction you need to go in, rather than the
cowardice of not being able to respond to something like the
murder of Mr. Khashoggi.
Oh, yeah, of course. Of course. It's like, oh, well, this is why
the clip was so good. Actually. You know, if you don't have the
courage to talk about something the Saudis did in Turkey, then
you can watch basketball I mean, what is this guy this guy is
insane to say these things.
It was actually very very measured and calculated. I look
at and that's maybe just just how I look at things. He was the
one red meat to the media. Oh, yeah. Hi. Hey, you gonna let he
didn't really talk about when he killed one of you guys wanting
to press this? Is
it right and yeah, it's a good point and part and actually that
did work for a little bit there at blipped I remember just in
the past week or so had this blip of a little bit of
Khashoggi Khashoggi news are referring to it. But, you know,
the the consultant, the British consultant on CNBC, he was kind
of saying what he's doing he's like, You got it. We need a
divergence. Everyone forgets this by Wednesday says Guys like
yeah, Khashoggi try that out. You're right. red meats. The
good good analysis.
Yeah. to the media. Yeah, to the media, because he wanted to meet
it. It goes off on the NBA. But the media couldn't go soft on
the NBA. And I think Greg miscalculated one thing.
Whenever you come for Trump,
Trump is going to come back for you, you know, 10 times worse.
And with that said,
let me just weave now, Trump has been in his bag for the last so
week and a half or so. With him say just with how he's been
coming at people. I mean, he's been shifty shift.
Nervous, Nancy? Right. And nervous man, Peter and Lisa, the
leader lovers.
So he's in rare form. Yeah, he's in sports. When they call
lathering up, he's lathering up, right. That's when you get a
good sweat going to go into 2020. And so with that says he's
ready for Gregg Popovich. And let's listen to
the Chinese wrong to be putting pressure on the NBA, sir.
Well, the NBA is a different thing. I mean, I watch this guy,
Steve Kerr. And he was like a little boy who was so scared to
be even answering the question. He couldn't answer the question.
He was shaking. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. He didn't
know how to answer the question. And he and he'll talk about the
United States very badly. I watched Popovich sort of the
same thing. But he didn't look quite a scared actually. But
they talked badly about the United States. But when it talks
about China, they don't want to say anything bad. I thought it
was pretty sad. Actually. It'll be it'll be very it'll be very
interesting. Excuse me.
Are you okay? Then with the Chinese government pressuring
the NBA over Hong Kong, they have to work
out their own situation, NBS. They know what they're doing.
But I watched the way that like, occur. Popovich and some of the
others were pandering to China, and yet to our own country, they
don't. It's like they don't respect it. It's like they don't
respect it. I said, What a difference. Is that sad? It's
very sad. To me, it's very sad.
Oh, man, classic, classic column unpatriotic. It works every
time.
He kicked me kicked the ball right back into it on their side
of the aisle field. Yeah. And he got he dodged Dasha beautifully,
because at the same time for the people that don't know, he's in
serious negotiations with the first step of the Chinese
agreement. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, phase
one. Now, it still has to be, quote, written down. But in
fact, I heard Steve Minuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury
say, Well, this is just like buying a building, which was
interesting for him to say that Trump being a builder. He said,
You know what, now we got everything. We got the notes,
we're gonna write it down. You know, we got to hash some stuff
out. But basically, no tariff increases scheduled. And there
would be I'm not so happy with it. But technology transfer and
agreements regarding five G. And then also as Trump call, as
Steve magenic calls it who way but Huawei and then this, but I
think the big thing here is farmers, the end, the Chinese
apparently already buying instead of the $8 billion worth
of goods, it'll go up to 40. They say between 40 and 50. So
I'll just say 40. And then the financial integration of Goldman
Sachs, JP Morgan, and the credit card, American Express and Visa,
MasterCard into China. Those are very big deals, and quite
honestly, and it wouldn't surprise me if you unfolded
this, but I wouldn't be disappointed if you didn't do
Trump may use the NBA some kind of a chip in this bargaining for
this phase or for phase two, it wouldn't surprise me certainly
teeing it up that way.
He is and and he made a political decision in two ways.
And the small woman it clipped to he, he put he laid down
there, won. The press was trying to get a soundbite of him coming
at China and he was like, that's, that's not gonna know.
That's between that right. He's like that between the NBA and
China, which, for Trump, I know that was very calculated,
because if he had if he had nothing to lose, he would have
let go on what how he really felt but he knew he had to deal
brewing in the background. And to if you notice, okay, I didn't
get to Steve Kirk clip cost one there was nothing really there.
And to me, it was very audible because the he was speaking very
timid and low when, you know, kind of like that and it was
like so it was very uncomfortable. But Gregg
Popovich was very vocal against Trump. Yeah, I'm with Steve Kerr
wasn't, but Trump chose to go after Steve Carr. That was a
political decision. Okay. My pinion
and current. Just remind me Kerr is
coach for the Golden State Warriors.
Okay, gotcha. My brother from another mother out there, Steph.
Right, right. Yeah, he's your brother's coach. Which is
located where? California Fornia. Sure. San Antonio is
located in Texas. That's red and blue right there. Yeah. So he
said, let me go after the low hanging fruit over here in
California. Yeah, right on. And I don't want to I don't want to
upset the applecart. You're saying, Oh, they're San Antonio
fans, right. As I said, it's a lot of it's a lot of moving
pieces in this whole story. And that's why I was fascinated me
and it made it very easy pick for me what the topic was going
to be about today. So with that said, I am not pro China Pro
Hong Kong, because I don't know a lot about it. But I know
there's forces on both sides. This working, you know, working
in the background. And in doing my research, I found this little
it's not necessary to the story. But it was funny what I found.
former National Security Officer expose,
Dennis Wilder, former National Security Council director for
China joins us on the phone. Dennis, I think you are in Hong
Kong. Is that correct?
Nope. I'm in Washington.
I do apologize. I'm sorry. I'm mistaken. My fault. My fault.
Okay, no, no, I'm not out to do. No. I'm not there. Right. You
got his woman National Security Office official? Well, Leslie,
maybe in Hong Kong?
Yeah, let me address what what we're doing what we have done
with Hong Kong. And I say this with some certainty. So we're
obviously working on a trade deal with Hong Kong with the
China, Hong Kong is effectively owned. And in a two, two systems
state, which means Hong Kong has its own representation for
government, but they also have the Chinese in there. And that's
all under this weird agreement they had with the Brits, and
they gave Hong Kong back but to keep the pressure up on Hong
Kong during the war on China. So Beijing keep the pressure on
them during these negotiations, which has been, you know, I've
been it's not small stuff that Trump has been doing. I'm 99%
convinced that our own forces, I'll just say, the civilians in
the State Department, ie, spooks, etc. They're over in
Hong Kong, and they're bribing them up and keeping them going
and giving them US flags and, and playing the US National
Anthem and getting guys to say stuff like this is as Hoh, I
mean, it's brilliant, brilliant to keep the pressure up. And I
think it's succeeded. And if in five weeks, we have a phase one
actual written agreement, I can almost predict that Hong Kong
may simmer down a little bit.
And Mr. Curry, you
call that alley? Oop, perfectly. Thank you, sir.
And I know what that means. I know how to I know how to grab
the URL up and slam it down. I know that all right.
So alright, so we have USA Today. Sports pulse. They're
going to lay out the NBA. NBA is China problem.
fight for freedom stand with Hong Kong. Those seven words
have the MBA, shaking, politicians tweeting, and US
fans scratching their heads very clearly noticing the league's
hypocrisy. Here's why. The league typically stays on the
sidelines when a coach like Gregg Popovich or Steve Kerr
tweets, something in opposition to the Trump administration,
very on brand for their audience base. But when Daryl Morey GM of
the Houston Rockets tweeted out his support for Hong Kong panic
took over the leak. The Chinese Basketball Association suspended
all ties with the rockets in the NBA had a choice to make
nothing, support worry, or protect the relationship that
the league has with China. They're trying to do it all.
Yeah. All right.
So that's that she was referring to what I said about him China
moonwalking and razor blade, right? So she she's even stated
that being outraged and you know, taking on social issues is
baked into the brand and the NBA. And this really came about
recently. And I must give a little explanation why. When the
NFL was dealing with the Colin Kaepernick issue, the NBA
leveraged itself on the side of its athletes speaking out, like
we support You know if that was it was Colin Kaepernick was an
NBA will support him. Yeah. Which is funny because they
actually have a rule in NBA against protesting during the
national anthem. But nobody wants to talk about that.
So Well, I think the NFL also has rules and you're supposed to
conduct yourself in a certain manner during the national
anthem.
Where they didn't came after the actual rule. Oh, oh, okay.
They didn't really have a rule in there. But the NBA had a rule
the whole time. But I mean, it's that that just don't let us get
your saying like we always say don't let a the facts get in the
way of a good narrative, of course. Oh, also they did that
as a way they're trying to jockey now am trying to become
America's number one sport.
Oh, of course, they want to take it all away. Yeah. And I
understand why.
And that's why they were so supportive for their athletes
speaking out and say look at us. We have support athletes taking
notice and taking stands against injustice. Yeah, those guys over
there you understand their conservative asshole. Let
me go take a look at LeBrons Twitter feed. I haven't seen
anything from him yet. Oh, you
you're not missing anything from your gaming.
I'm sorry. The future filter when we meet. I know I'll stay
in the present for now.
Okay, so, but she said a lot in that on in that last clip. But
we're in the next clip we're gonna find out why LeBron and
other players are not gonna say anything.
In a statement, Adam Silver preached the importance of free
speech while attempting to smooth over the league's
relationship with China in hopes of moving past all this
altogether. an impossible task really? Why would a league
defined by its culture for open dialogue and social justice
causes try and minimize and apologize for one of their own
speaking out against the human rights atrocities taking place
in China? Well, plenty. A lot of money. China is an economic
juggernaut for the NBA. 490 million people in China consume
the NBA just last season alone. And just like any capitalistic
Corporation in America, the NBA has built a massive codependence
on good old China. So that's why you have James Harden and
Russell Westbrook praising China. In a recent press
conference. We love China with no plan there. That's why you
have the NBA apologizing to Chinese fans. And that's why
everyone in the league office is freaking out.
Hey, Mo, when do we get to these guys are slaves bit of the show
dumps?
I was just waiting for that.
Oh, it's coming. It's coming in a week. We know who they are. We
know who they are. They're owned by Yeah. And like I said, we're
gonna get there. And I know, the better term would be pawns, but
we're heading in that direction. So as she says, the NFL, I mean,
the NBA has never faced a cause where it was impactful to their
bottom line. Right? You know, every every stance they took was
the same stance.
That's with all of this woke stuff. It's all very safe for
the people yelling at Sure.
Right. But when the rubber meets the road, and but that's, that's
why it's such a shock for their fan base, right? Because they
actually think these players are really down for the cause. Of
but as we continue in the show, we're gonna see they're not
they're down for the bottom line. But let's get the clip
three.
The NBA does not want to make China mad. They can't afford to.
But let's be real who the NBA has made a deal with. And maybe
the reason why Daryl Morey felt compelled to hit send on Twitter
in the first place. China's government is really bad, they
do not care about human rights. First, there's a million or so
Muslims held in concentration camps in China. Second, people
who speak out against China's atrocities frequently go missing
or get put in jail. Thirdly, Hong Kong, which is a part of
China, but is free to operate separately from the Chinese
regime is losing their freedom minute by minute faster than
agreed upon, which is why Hong Kong is protesting. Firstly,
it's getting ugly. It's pretty clear for the NBA a league that
promotes social justice that the bottom line is still the bottom
line. Every corporation has their price and this league is
no different.
She says something interesting. She said Hong Kong is losing its
freedoms faster than agreed upon. I thought that was pretty
funny.
Oh, yeah. We're way ahead of schedule. I'll lose my freedom's
Adam. So
we need to dial that back. Alright, sorry. Sorry. Yes,
no, no, I'm just yeah, this
is just like I said, so the main the main issue
with this whole story, I mean, you have your political
implications and everything like that. But the main word if we
had to summarize in one word of the story is hypocrisy. Yeah.
The hypocrisy of the NBA and his players have been so exposed
that even the media couldn't protect them, right? Even the
politicians couldn't protect them. I mean, they're out there
all they're out there floating on your stand on a law by
themselves. Because we've seen politicians from both sides. Be
pro America over pro China. We've seen like I said, media,
which is funded by its networks. Say, oh, okay, we get a chance
to take a jab at these guys that we don't have make money with
right as as well as they always do. So, we're gonna go to speak
for yourself, and why LeBron and Kaepernick have yet to address
the NBA China controversy.
Now for a big story. Let's return to the NBA, which
continues to deal with the fallout over Daryl Morey his
tweet last week in support of democracy protesters in Hong
Kong. The Chinese government and businesses have threatened the
MBAs activity in China over the incident. But the NBA is most
prominent voice on political and social justice issue. LeBron
James has yet to address it at all. The king silence is
undoubtedly related to his relationship with Nike, whose
business interest in China are even greater than the NBA, and
another of Nike social justice. shoe salesman Colin Kaepernick
has yet to offer any comment on the communist regimes attempt to
curb the Free Speech of American citizen, Daryl Morey. My
question here is are LeBron and Kaepernick and other athletes
pawns in a political game that they don't fully understand.
Ooh, key phrase social justice shoe salesman, what a tongue
twister.
And the answer to that question that he posed is yes, they are
pawns. Yep. They're well pay pawns. But they are pawns down
the list. Because when when when I'm when it really comes down to
making a stance, and that was the weird thing, because like
when LeBron James and all the other players in NBA coaches
great arm, Steve Carr and Gregg Popovich know, it's real easy to
say, Oh, we stand with Colin Kaepernick in solidarity, you
know, to stand up for worse, right? Right. But these guys
have went missing. And we're talking about a guy like LeBron
James and tweets and Instagram posts about Taco Tuesday, and
Colin Kaepernick. He did this weird trick. I don't know if you
caught it or not. When this thing this whole thing started
brewing up. He did a a look over there kind of thing. He put he
sent out a two page post. Media press release on how he's not
still not back in the NBA NFL yet. He got out ahead of this
thing, creating a diversion, creating a diversion. And I was
like, Oh, I know what that is.
Well, here's the main thing. He's not a basketball player.
He's a football player. So what's the common
element? Nike.
Yeah, exactly. Nike and cash.
Yeah. And not only Nike, but tennis shoe companies in
general. Because we know where most of these products are made.
And they make a lot of money. It's very cheap or cheaply made
product. And it's so foreign. Maybe 20 30x. What they make it
for is a great business King,
I'd say more than 20 30x. But okay,
may maybe I'm just being safe with the numbers, but it may be
even more. So but yeah, Colin Kaepernick. He knew people were
gonna be coming at him to stick a microphone in his face. Well,
if they can find them, right there. They're gonna be tweeting
out because he never says anything, but they're gonna be
tweeting at him saying, hey, Colin, what's what's your what's
your take? Home? Yeah, yeah. So he got out in front of that
thing, I think at the apt to be out with assume at the behest of
Nike and say, hey, they're going to cover for you. So let's least
release this press release to talk about the NFL and how
you're not back in the NFL. But that didn't stick either. Um, so
we're going to continue with the Speak for yourself. clip clip
two.
There's a song from Hamilton. I want to be in the room when it
happens right where it happens and to me, you're upon if you
not in the room, you may have the greatest exposure, you may
have the greatest celebrity, you may have the loudest voice. But
if you're not in the room where the decisions are being made,
then ultimately then you're you are upon you're not the Queen,
you're not the king. You're not the rook. And with LeBron and
Colin Kaepernick, yes. They're their ability to present a
certain opinion, is just that it's a certain opinion. And it's
connected, as you said, once again, it's it's all about
business.
So what people are starting to realize is that LeBron James, or
Colin Kaepernick or not Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King,
Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders.
Take a nice, take them off the wall. They don't deserve that
spot next to Oprah.
Right. Where they came to give them that wall. Well, yeah,
that's what they've tried to they tried to posture themselves
as you know, leaders. But really, their pawns are, you
know, and just to clarify, when you use the word slave, because
I know somebody's trigger, meter who went into the raid you're
talking about? I don't want to put words in your mouth is that
we're all
slaves. Oh, we're all slaves and Gitmo nation. Absolutely. Right.
Yeah, we're all slaves. I'm just wanting to clarify that kind of
no. So my I just probably went bloodshot, but it's listening.
Okay. Yeah.
Well, yeah, thank you for that. But yes, I mean, that's the way
I see we're all wage slaves of one sort or the other
wasteland just fine. If you want to put it where it's like, it's
interesting.
You say that, because 10 years ago, the no agenda show had
these T shirts, which had a barcode on it. And underneath it
said, slave, like that was the translation of the barcode. We
don't sell those anymore. You can't not now that 10 years ago,
that was interpreted as Oh, I get it. We're all slaves of the
system and the barcode. Now, you can't do that. And people get
offended.
Like, how prints run on the side of his face? Like yes, exactly.
Well, but but that, well, there you go. That's the perfect
example. And I met Prince several times, I talked to him
talk to him about this. And that he was truly enslaved to Warner
Brothers. And that's how he felt. And so he I think he used
that that term very appropriately at the time.
And in the same way, LeBron James A may brought up the
reason why I'm not getting on James Harding as much he's a
player for the actual Houston Rockets. The general manager who
made the statement, because he hasn't been very political. He's
like a fun loving, you know, basketball, just a basketball
guy. So but he's, the one cannot say, Oh, we love China. But they
kind of threw him out there to the wolves, like, hey, and
by the end, just just as an aside, you know, it's really
easy for us to say, China, this China that we're generalizing,
we don't really know. I mean, I know a few Chinese people and
Chinese Americans are wonderful Americans in general, that I
know. And this is really the regime and the state who kind of
run the show. So and when we say, China, the Chinese it's,
you know, it's not necessarily the people themselves, but the,
the regime.
And let me put so okay, I'm glad you brought that up. Because I'm
gonna put some context to the now just spoke with one person
to the Chinese perspective on this whole thing. Yeah. Which is
needed. They don't, they don't say anything politically out
loud. This is totally foreign to them. The reason why I know this
is this guy, I worked with he the Chinese guy, and we taught
basketball. I mean, I mean, like, literally taught, you
know, the ins and outs of teams, moves, transactions, all those
things. And I asked him, I was walking down the hall, and I
asked him, I said, Hey, what is your take on this whole Chinese
NBA thing? He got to a quiet Hush. Because he was like, we
don't we don't talk about those things. Yeah. I mean, he was
dead. I mean, we were laughing y'all about, you know, the
Lakers, the clippers, you know, just in a casual conversation,
but I just wanted to get some no context, right? This is totally
foreign for somebody to come out and make a political stance. And
by the end, that's why it really hits with a certain magnitude
over there that we can't understand.
And by the same token, you mentioned at the beginning of
the show, that if you turn off basketball, will the Chinese
revolt like we would hear in the States for for you know, if the
NFL just shut off? And there are no more games? I'm not so sure I
that's the part that I'm fuzzy on is will that mean? It's
possible and if there's 490 million people who stood up and
say, forget the regime's pressing us and forgetting you,
locking people up, we want our MBA be, it would certainly be
enough people. But would the Chinese government stand for it?
I don't know. I
think it would be so huge. That it'd be something that that can
sweep under the rug.
Oh, man, if you could overturn a communist regime because of
basketball, that would be phenomenal.
Well, didn't the basketball negotiate with a communist
communist regime?
Why yes, I think you're right.
I mean, it's not far fetched. Yeah. All right. It's not far
fetched at all, because we don't understand. I don't think I can
say football, if you were to say and I want to give just as an
anecdotal example,
football, gambling was illegal in America. Period.
But when they brought about fantasy football, that changed
everything, right. And it was like a couple of states that
tried to ban and make fantasy football illegal, right. And
they got so much mail the two senators and representatives of
that all those two states got so much mail that they had to back
down and that really kicked the door down for sports gambling to
be accepted. In America isn't in total now. Come if you watch
sports shows happen to show us about the lines.
I know it's so annoying.
Yeah, something but it's an investment. It's an investment
to it is what it is.
I understand. Yeah. The the sports betting is its national
pastime.
Right. But it came out of the causes. Due to fantasy football.
Gotcha. Fantasy Football was the Ellen of sports game.
All right, Moe. I gotcha. We've offended everybody. All right.
Let's go. Oh, no.
Oh, let's see. So I want to introduce and small new segment
to the show, there's gonna be a probably a reoccurring theme.
Not that frequent, because it doesn't happen that often. But
it's called when keeping it real goes wrong. And just to give
some background what that is, that is when somebody tells the
unmitigated truth, regardless of the fact and really, that's what
del Moray did, but we have a host on the same segment from
speaking your own for Speak for yourself. He goes total. Keeping
it real goes wrong, but let's get the jingle first. You are
watching
when keeping it real goes wrong.
Alright, 7017
Okay, yeah.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I'm out of order. Yeah, you
did just skip one, but I just wanted to let you go.
Okay, no, no.
So Mr. Curry, this is where I had a beef with you. Because you
start you came on my turf, sir. I know. I was sitting back on my
Sunday afternoon getting ready for the football game. And I
hear this.
Nike is in control of basketball, the NBA college
basketball High School. Nike is the real person driving this
conversation in this thing with China. If you go back to now I'm
connected to politics in 2015. In May of 2015, President Barack
Obama went to Nikes headquarters in Portland, Oregon, yes, and
announced his defense of the TPP Trans Pacific Partnership.
That's a trade deal that was gonna be very favorable for Nike
for China, who's the president that came after Obama and walked
America away from the TPP Dawn Donald Trump, who is the shoe
company that employs LeBron James Colin Kaepernick and these
other athletes that smear Donald Trump is racist. Who are the
people constantly criticizing Donald Trump? NBA, Steve Kerr,
Gregg Popovich, the NBA answers to Nike Nikes a $40 billion
business. The NBA is an $8 billion business. President
Obama, the basketball President friendly relationship with the
NBA went to Nikes headquarters to announce his defense of the
TPP this thing is very simple. This is about money. This is
about a president that won't cooperate with what Nike wants
done. Nike is using the NBA and its leverage over the NBA to go
after this guy because they disagree with him about his
policies as it relates to trade in China.
So Jason Whitlock, who I mean, I follow him, and I didn't even
see this on fox sports one it was I don't watch a lot of Fox
actually. But this came on a show that I watch. And I would
say he needs to avoid small aviation hot tubs don't canoe
anywhere in DC. You know, there's a lot of things, you
know, be careful, no firearms in the house, you can get to to the
head and the gun in your left hand. And there's a lot of money
at stake for him to be exposing this. But holy mackerel, even I
hadn't made the Obama Nike TPP connection. And when Obama was
there, went back and listened to his speech. He was saying how
has great because, you know, finally Vietnam will have, you
know, will will be held to account Vietnam is, I mean, it's
not a huge competitor, but definitely a competitor to China
when it comes to manufacturing. So it was so obvious that that
Obama was the DICOM. President.
So yeah, and the thing is that Speak for yourself is on Fox.
And that's why I was mentioning earlier in the show is one of
the outlets where you can get a real fair assessment on this
whole situation, because they don't have any skin in the game.
We've seen that
yet. Not yet. Not yet. But I'll tell you when you're talking
40 $50 billion a year. And in these industries, maybe more.
You know, Jason Whitlock got a call, believe me, he got a call
from someone somewhere, probably not from his own network.
And you know what, because Nike is tied in with the NFL as well,
bingo. And the NFL has deals with Fox and go, bingo. So you
are exactly right. And this is one of the cases of keeping it
get real goes wrong. And this is a new segment that I would like
to bring to the show
you're watching. Keeping it real goes wrong.
Just through your jingling again.
Yes. So keep it at gear goes wrong. Just let me explain what
that is. That is when you tell the unmitigated truth,
regardless of the consequences are you doing, you know, you go
with your gut, no matter what the consequence is, and we've
seen that with Jason Whitlock. And we see that and this net
clip on Jason Whitlock show you are
upon I hate to break this news to you. You are I don't play
chess you are you are a pawn and you're upon because you are
leverageable, you're a leverageable asset. All right.
You're a leverageable asset. I'm a leverageable asset, what is a
leveraged leverageable asset. If we are no longer 11 leverageable
asset to Fox, we are no longer welcome at Fox. That's the
bottom line. If you don't bring that value, if you don't bring a
tremendous value for what their causes and their business model
is. You're you're not going to be here. The same goes for what
we're talking about right now. So when you're talking about,
you know, are these guys pawns for this political game? Of
course they are.
Mm huh. Political but you know, who, you know, who are not
pawns? Adam? We're not pawns?
No, no, of course we're not. I'm thinking like, wait a minute,
who else is not a pawn besides, yes, we're not pawns, which is
why we're doing a podcast Moe and why we're not on Fox, which
is why we asked people to donate to the show, as he even brought
up the word value. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And we That's
exactly right. Actually, thank you for mentioning that. That's
our system value for value we'll talk about at the end of the
show. But yeah, yeah, you got so Yeah, where's the value of these
guys now? And how does it stack up?
So that is an example I'll keep it in when keeping it real goes
wrong. And that was levar Arrington a former football
player, I mean, stellar football player. And he called Jason
Whitlock upon on his own show. Yeah. So we will not probably be
here.
Nope. anymore. Thanks for dropping by.
Yeah, it took courage. Yeah, it took it took a lot of courage.
So with the help of you, and Jason, we have identified Nike
as the main culprit, even behind bigger than the NBA. I mean, the
T, the NBA,
the TPP that, that he referred to the Trans Pacific
Partnership. I never liked because it was kind of the
secret of document, you couldn't find the whole thing. There's
all these different countries and everyone had their own
agenda. And it seemed like anything that leaked out, only
showed it was corporate interest. You know, make sure
this cheese can only be from this region. Otherwise it can't
be called that cheese. I mean, this kind of dumb stuff like the
European Union has. And I just didn't like it offhand. Because
it wasn't transparent. And but it was a big deal. I mean, this
is the EU still talks about it. This is not something to be
overlooked. Oh, just some little, little funky thing. I
mean, this was huge. And yeah, Trump pretty much immediately
said no, I'll have none of it.
Now Oh, when I heard this clip, my forehead went home. I just
watched this Bob just want to have asked a question. Did Trump
use the TPP as a leveraging tool to get this deal that he has
with China now?
Oh, I I would think so. Yeah, why not make sense?
Oh, crush this thing where you got to on the back end? You
know, you got it, you know, saying give me a better deal.
Yeah. Because the TPP actually hurt China. My understanding?
Oh, yeah. That's
the whole point. That was the whole the right. Well, no, wait
a minute. I'm sorry. Let me take that back.
Because we're in Vietnam. Wouldn't Vietnam get all the
Chinese business? This would hurt China? That's what yeah,
that's what I said. So what you said, okay, yeah, it would hurt.
It would hurt China. And so he's like, Hey, I got this thing over
here
that I can ignore. And, you know,
not like, it's not be a headache to even try to attack it. And
it'll kill you guys. But if you give me a better deal, it's a
win win for both of us.
Oh, oh, yeah, I'm just shut up now. Because I don't want to be
from the future. Okay. I'm just listening.
I'm just throwing that out there. So okay, so. So we see
with Nike, we've already identified Nike, as the culprit
behind the NFL and the China. You know, they're the big
player, and their biggest player, and Mr. Lebron James.
And they have empowered Mr. LeBron James, to be more than an
athlete.
Never let someone put you in a box and tell you, this is what
you should do. And this is only what you should do. Basketball
is a huge thing of mine. But I think my responsibility is so
much bigger than that. Who knows who's the next great leader and
where they are. My job is to inspire the youth for when they
have those dreams, they believe that they can make those dreams
come true. I think it's my responsibility to be more than
that.
Man,
kids hearts, they're gonna break all across the country.
So this is a they did a whole campaign with Lebron James. This
was a five minute video on YouTube. But I think it was part
of a longer video for the campaign and he actually did a
world tour. And on that war tour, he stopped in Beijing. And
in that five minute video, he spoke with this young Chinese
girl. Now, Adam, I know you are multilingual.
Yeah. Okay. You brush up on my Mandarin.
Yes. So I want to see if you can guess the translation on this
next clip.
Oh, so this is an ask Adam. Is that what you're doing here?
Yes, yes, I
got my jingle Hola. You get too easy. LeBron is the man I heard
it right there.
You are so close.
I knew I couldn't be far off. What was it? Exactly.
There's that translation. And this is from the subtitles of
this. For most of the fans. He is a real leader. Now go back to
the question I asked you before you have Lebron James. And you
should have seen the scores of people following him like he's
Jesus Christ Himself. Sure, sure. So if a LeBron James says
I stand with Taiwan,
woof Yeah, he can't say that.
You understand, of course, understood shot. The Chinese
understands what's at risk here. Yeah. They understand the power
of propaganda and athletes being used for propaganda. But as you
know, part of this show is about history. We've seen this before
athletes being used as propaganda, one of them being
Mr. Brown bomber himself, Joe Lewis.
It was April 1938. The fear of war in Europe was very real when
Max Schmeling arrived in New York aboard the German liner the
Bremen for his second bout against the World Heavyweight
Champion, Joe Lewis. Lewis had already successfully defended
his world title three times. But this fight was billed as the
Nazis versus freedom with Joe Lewis carrying nothing less than
the fate of the world on his shoulders.
And, in fact, the Nazi press was appalled at the extent to which
the American press were turtling Schmeling into an assay, it was
creating anti German feeling unnecessarily. And this was not
I mean, the put it into a context this is not what Hitler
wanted.
Even the White House got involved. Franklin D. Roosevelt
had maintained a regular correspondence with Max
Schmeling in the early 30s and even supported him against the
Lithuanian American Jack Sharkey in 1932. But by 1938, all that
had changed.
1938 Roosevelt asked Louis to come to the White House, and now
like to slap his muscles around and said, We need muscles like
this to defeat Nazi Germany. This was in 38, three years,
three and a half years before we entered the war. But the
atmosphere was very much that at that,
Max Schmeling was was a very terrific boxer. He was not a
Nazi. Certainly he was a German and in those days, any German
was considered a Nazi. I think Adolf Hitler used Mac's mailing
in terms of the political propaganda just as Franklin
Roosevelt used my father. These were two strong, powerful men
representing two strong, powerful countries. And
obviously the outcome was significant for both countries.
Man, this is perfect. Now of course, I'm thinking of the
Rocky movies. There's a whole bunch of different things, but
I didn't know this about Joe. Yeah, Joe Lewis was
I know, I know what he did for hero. He I know he integrate he
desegregated golf. I know that that's typical for me to know
that and not know about this Nazi thing that that's
fantastic.
And not only that, but that's why i Lee caught so much flak.
Right. Right. Right, because they wanted to use him because
Joe Lewis went around he did. He actually joined the military,
the exhibition fights and donated his persons to the to
the troops. And get his the kicking ass though Adam. He did
all of that. And the RS charged him and ruin him over the money
that he went and donated the purses to the military. Really,
because what happened was the checks were made out to him. He
takes the size the check over to the military charities,
whatever, but he had to pay counted as he's writing. Yeah,
but it was money he never had. And it actually ruined him.
Yeah. And he's in his life. And then the saw Yeah, so that was
just a little note history, but he is not the only one. Do you
know of Jesse Owens?
Jesse Owens, the runner. Yes.
Jesse Owens, the runner. He was also used as a symbol American
symbol. Well, that gets Hitler right. Well,
yes, this of course I remember because I was there. Now. He
This is very famous. And you know, I think we've all grown up
seeing the black and white footage of him just going like a
bat out of hell. And this was the the Olympic Games it was at
Munich. No. Yeah, it was the Berlin Berlin Berlin Berlin.
It was actually in Germany. Yeah. In front of Hitler. That
was why it made so iconic. But I mean him being
and look at look at America. Hey, send a black over there,
man. You never know it's nobody. Is Hitler let
him go. Right. So American wise as they did a comical but
factual take on the Jesse Owens versus Hitler.
In 1936. The Olympics were in, in Germany in Berlin, Germany.
is 36 and the Nazis are running the show, right? And then we sat
over Jesse Owens, the fastest man alive. Yeah, he was like a
secret weapon in 36 games. So Jesse goes to the Olympics in
1936 and suits up. Now here's a sidebar. Not all Germans were
Nazis. Okay. There was some good yeah, there was just one dude
named eight off to not eight off like to eight off as well.
Anyway, his name was Adolf Dassler, and he just wanted to
he didn't want to kill people and be a Nazi. He just wanted to
make shoes. That's what his parents did. His parents made
shoes. He wanted to make shoes. And at night when everybody
would go to sleep paid off Dassler him and his brother was
in the kitchen. He would cook up a batch of track shoe is before
you could like cook up mess. So Adolf Dassler he and his
brother, they're in the shoe business and they know they need
somebody famous to wear their shoes to get more people to buy.
So Adolf Dassler gets into straw and he drives down to Berlin and
he introduces himself Jesse Owens. He's like, hey, Jesse. My
name is Adolph and if you would wear my track shoes, I'd be
very, very happy. And you don't even have to call me eight off
all my good friends call me adi. That's my nickname Adi Adi das
law. In fact, if the company goes, We're not going to call it
Adi das law. We're gonna like tighten that up. Just call it
Adi Das. So yeah, that's where that got started.
Oh, man, the minute I heard the name, like, of course, Adidas.
And who knew that was the first shoe endorsement? I guess?
It's all about the shoes, baby. Wow, Ma Ma, ma
ma. I'm just gonna ring my bell for you, man. Nice. We have the
origin of shoe endorsements, going back to 1936.
Yes. X, how'd you find out about that? And I knew
about Jesse Owens. But I also learned that and I learned while
doing this show. And we see China understands. And as the
crisis manager says, China has a very long memory. So they said,
Hey, we've seen these guys, Americans use these athletes and
know as symbols of freedom of democracy.
Are people look at?
What was that quote? Little girl? I mean, getting her exact
words. Oh, she said leader that's for for most fans. He's a
real leader. The key word is real
leader. Ooh. Yes. Yes. Yes.
So if you had a LeBron James and one thing we haven't talked
about this, LeBron James was actually in China playing
basketball when this tweet went out. So
in essence, LeBron James could stand up for the live game in
China and say,
Hey, these guys suck. Your
government's no good. Jesus douche. And the people would
frown probably do something about it.
At least the young ones? Yeah.
It were called a real Fisher. Yes. And they're in their
control mechanism. They have oh, they're people.
So this explains that China is not just retaliating, they may
be extremely worried about this stuff.
Yeah. Which is the reason why they were hyper aggressive. Like
I said, it's bigger than money is one thing. That's not That's
not to say we're not let's not poopoo the money. That's why I
said this story has so many levels to there. You have the
money you had to political implications you had to
propaganda applications. But with all that said, we go back
to the hypocrisy. Because there was a was the lady named from
Fox.
Nora named this is clear as day the blonde lady, Laura
Ingraham,
Laura Ingraham.
She is in group when I say Ingraham.
She had a back and forth with Lebron, prior to this situation,
where she told him to shut up and dribble. And it was so much
to make made about it. He actually created a whole
production, a television show, with the same name called shut
up and dribble.
I would never have believed that we were ever going to end up in
a situation where the woke era of the NBA and potentially the
woke era of sports in general, went to die in China. But I want
to start with what happened early this morning in China, the
NBA bit the knee, the NBA acquiesced to China, the NBA
shut up and dribble. China allowed the preseason game
between the Lakers and the 70 Sixers to take place. But the
preconditions required that no NBA players, coaches or
executives talk to the media before or after the game. As a
result, it is a literal truth that LeBron James who said I am
more than a basketball player, LeBron James who said I will not
shut up and dribble LeBron James shut up and dribble and took
communist inspired cash from China. In exchange for doing so.
He didn't just shut up and dribble he shut up and dribbled
for a mass murdering totalitarian regime with a
million plus people in concentration camps right now.
He shut up and dribble in a country of 1.4 billion where
they don't have basic freedoms, where they cannot I'd even get
on the internet and be able to read about the Tiananmen Square
Massacre because it has been blocked. They can't even get on
Twitter because it doesn't exist in their country. And they can't
even use a basic form of Google because their minds are censored
and controlled by the government around them. LeBron James had no
problem with any of that. China said jump and he asked how high
China's said kneel and he asked how low Adam Silver. LeBron
James Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, all of them knelt at the
altar of the almighty dollar, and sold their souls in exchange
for more cash when they already had a lot of cash.
I wish that guy wouldn't hold back. He's sugarcoating it so
much.
So this is Clay Travis. He's a frequent correspondent on fox
sports news. But this was all his own personal podcast. And
this is example of the hypocrisy coming back to bite. LeBron
James in the ass. With this shut up and dribble.
Yep, he's just he's waiting for Wednesday, just waiting to blow
over.
So this is to be expected because this is chat clay
Travers is left or right leaning. You know, so that is to
be expected because they're going to politicize or as they
should. We you're in business. But he's also catching flack
from the liberal side as well. In the documentary I mentioned
before, shut up and dribble. The narrator was one miss Jamil
Hill.
Oh, from ESPN, the one who hates Trump.
Yeah, so yes,
I caught a clip of Miss Jamil Hill being interviewed
on CNN, bringing
the Atlantic's Jamel Hill who just published an op ed arguing,
quote, The problem for the NBA is that this isn't just a free
speech issue. This is a test to see whether the NBA has the
stomach to fight for certain values. When doing so
compromises, business, unquote. Jamel an honor to have you here.
Thanks so much. How do you think the NBA and silver are handling
this test?
Well, I think they're handling it very delicately. And I think
the original way that they sort of came out of this thing with
that statement where they refer to Houston, General Manager,
Daryl Morey his tweet as regrettable, it really raised a
lot of eyebrows. I mean, here's a league, that in large part is
considered to be among the more progressive, if not the most
progressive of all the major pro sports leagues. And for them to
seemingly back away and distance itself from one of its
employees, when it's kind of built that reputation. It was
very eye opening to a lot of people. And it looked as if the
NBA was just content, to kind of kneel to China, so as not to
affect business and forgetting, and they forgot about the fact
that, you know, they have players and coaches and other
league personnel that they've allowed to be vocal on a number
of political topics. So it would be very hypocritical for the NBA
to all of a sudden abandon those principles.
Wait a minute, does Jamel Hill still work for ESPN? Ie Disney?
No, she
No. Okay, that's why so she has an axe to grind. Kidding.
No kidding. Yeah. Well, she's right. She is
right. And it's like, oh, as people say, in common slang,
more recent slang keep the same energy. And what that means is
if you're going to be outraged on one topic, you can't go into
hiding. And the other topic, right? And we heard from the
Lebron James the previous clip, LeBron James himself said, I
won't allow myself to be put in a box. Where you have been put
been put in the box. The NBA silenced you. Yep, they Sonix
you. You can't make him say I'm sure it's like unofficial gag
order on NBA players, you know, saying, Oh, no. Make a
statement.
Yeah, no doubt be quiet. You like you'd like to check Shut
up.
But who's gonna be the Colin Kaepernick of the NBA? That's
the question. I mean, if you're so if you guys are so you know,
willing to stand up for what's right, what you consider what's
right, who's gonna stand up for
and, and just for a moment there, you know, knowing about
this Nike connection. It also is very telling about why the NBA
by the NFL put up with Kaepernick at
all. Yeah,
I'm sure the reaction wasn't because Nike is super woke.
That's their brand. That's a big part of what they do. And they
and they clearly were supporting him. So there was probably some
conflict there that we didn't even think about at the time.
It was a weird conflict because the NFL really didn't make a
statement when they signed Colin Kaepernick to their 20 I think
was 20 year just do it campaign right exact they didn't really
say Anything they didn't say, Oh, we're gonna pool or
threatened the pool? No, no, no. The sports leagues are at the
behest of Nike. Yep. I mean, let's just be clear about that.
But Jamel Hill she continues on and clip two.
I think it's a little more nuanced than that. I mean, Sally
is definitely right, that there's a lot of American
businesses that do business in China, and they sort of hold
their nose as they write and receive checks. The difference
is how many of them have the social responsibility brand that
the NBA does keep in mind, Jake, that this is the same league who
delayed having the all star game in Charlotte because of the
controversial bathroom bill. This is the same league that
basically as Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, LeBron James, Steph
Curry, Kevin Durant, many of their players have been outright
critical of the president of the United States. And their entire
response has been, hey, let these guys say what they
politically believe this is the same league where Commissioner
Adam Silver, was dancing at the gay pride parade on a float in
New York City. So they have made being socially responsible a
part of their brand. And that's why there's a different
expectation for them.
Oh, I love that social justice brand, and social responsibility
to homeless women write that down social response. Yeah,
that's good. Well, you know, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
They put their self in our series box here. And they're
just seeming disingenuous, their actions that they're taking
late, and they won't go all the way in and out. Fire D'Amore is
not making the Chinese fans happy. The fact that they won't
let their players say anything, or not making their liberal fans
happy. And I'm sure the NBA will wish this will all just go away.
And someone will take your saying take their attention
away. But no, not as long as like I said a lot as long as
politicians can politicize this, and I think you mentioned it in
one clip before you had AOC and Ted Cruz
working together. Yes. So
I mean, this issue says we're in a weird
by now, you know, this, this fits one of my rules perfectly.
And it's the Adam curry media boomerang rule. And, and I've
observed this, I've witnessed this for, you know, 35 years,
when you use the media, to promote something for your own
gain financial or otherwise, but when you use it when you're out
there promoting and it's for your own gain. for unexplained
reasons of the cosmos, it always comes back at you with equal or
stronger force, not necessarily immediately, it could be years
down the road, but it's just the nature of media, that if you're
using it, it'll turn around and bite you. It's a very fickle
lover.
And we see that often cast so so let's see here, Jamil, he'll
wrap up her take on on NFL NBA
is just surprising considering this is the league where
everybody has worn this outspoken label as long as it
draws them praise. But the moment it conflicts with
business, then everybody wants to get silent.
And very quickly if you could, LeBron James is in China right
now. We only have a few seconds, but do you think he should keep
his mouth shut on this? Or what do you think?
Well, I would be surprised if LeBron said anything because
again, they're looking at what happened as a result of this
Daryl Morey tweet if you're LeBron James, and you also are
an empire into yourself unto yourself. I would not be
surprised if he were quiet. Now. What does that mean for somebody
who has this entire campaign called more than an athlete? I
don't know.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, the best thing could could please Could North Korea
shoot off a missile or something? Anything to get me
out of this?
Anything
can turn up the heat on on the impeachment. Yeah, something I
mean, and, and what's crazy is we're about to kick off the NBA
season here and another week or so. Oh, it's just gonna we're
right at that's why they were doing this China China Tour,
preseason.
Just wish header. So now,
before we get into this last segment of the show,
why would Daryl Morey do this?
He understands the Chinese culture, because they had Yao
Ming bear for many, many years. play for the team. You know,
they had, you know, there was some understanding with the
Houston Rockets organization and the Chinese culture.
Why would he do this? And I don't have an answer for that.
I have a theory but I don't have an answer for that. What's your
theory?
Somebody put them up to wow, why would you Why That's the dumbest
thing you could do. Working for the NBA,
I mean, like the dummies?
Well, the only thing I can imagine is, you got a call from
the President
to hook me up.
Do something naughty for me, because I'm in the middle of
negotiation. Don't worry, I'll make it right. And it could be
kind of fun. You know if we can smooth this over just in time
for the season to start. And Trump could come in and could
save the NBA from their horrible problems with the Chinese.
If we think about it,
being all winning, it's an $8 billion. Li Yeah, what's a
couple of billion dollars to write for the government to
write a check to the NBA to get them out of bed with China?
Oh, man,
I have no idea. Well, not
that much money is not it's really I mean, we've got
billions, but it's really not that much money. But
ultimately, I mean, I have no problem with the NBA and then
making money. I think it's really good that we have some
transparency. And people understand that, Oh, hold on a
second. There's a lot, there's a lot deeper than I then I
realized, and maybe, maybe people will have a little more
clarity before they start worshipping sports heroes. But
in general, I think the idea is certainly from my perspective,
I'd love to can we get along with China? I mean, yeah, we
kill people who we have capital punishment, we do all kinds of
stuff, looking from the outside, it could look weird. You know,
we we have a brand that may not necessarily reflect our true
values. So it would be great if we could figure out a way to
smooth this over with China. So NBA can still continue.
Everybody can still make money. But the flip side is you got to
cut that shit out NBA in general, just stop with the
wokeness. play some
ball. Okay, I've
got my foil hat on. You got to know.
What was happening simultaneous to this how the whole event?
Well, we have the Chinese, the China negotiations, if that's
what you mean?
Yes. Wouldn't it work? Do you list for a distraction airy tool
for both sides, China and America? Say let's talk about
the NBA. Because I'm sure the deals that China may or may not
say I'm going way, we
don't don't look at what we're doing with 5g and possible spy
networks being created NBA right now possible.
I haven't heard anything. I haven't heard anything. But a
lot of people that are pro NBA are saying well, the players
shouldn't say anything. Because, you know, that's a global
happening in Hong Kong and you know, China, that's that's way
above their, you know, that now they're using the convenient
thing that's way above their pay grade. And yeah, they should
only talk about topics that they are educated about. Right. So
we're gonna we're gonna do this little exercise here, Adam. All
right. What were some of the things that the Trump
administration and people around Trump have been criticized
by the liberals?
Well, I mean, you got to push me in the right direction. That
means that memes just name some of the top memes
Well, first of all, the President is not presidential.
Now, but that's not what you're looking for. You need to you
need to prod me along here. I'm not following.
Okay. On the border? What was the mean? Oh, is we're putting
children in cages 26.
These kids must have been very, very naughty. Hi, I'm Chris
Chappell. And this is the run list. So you might be wondering,
what did these kids do to get locked inside a cage? Actually,
it's not what you think, unless what you're thinking is exactly
what I'm about to say in which case, I apologize for doubting
you. So these two little girls, one is four and a half and the
other is two are what are known as left behind children.
Basically, the way it works in China is that many parents have
to leave the rural countryside to find work in the cities as
migrant workers and so their children are left behind. Some
parents only make it home about two or three times a year. You
know how travel in China becomes a nightmare during the Chinese
New Year. This is why it's one of the few times a year people
actually make it home. Good grief. So these kids are just
two of what some estimate to be more than 150 million left
behind children in China. That means grandma and grandpa have
to take care of them. And frankly, walking kids in a cage
is way easier for grants. But besides keeping the kids in one
place so they don't get lost or hurt. It also prevents them from
being kidnapped. The run Karen Chang recently did a story about
babies for sale in China. And the US just today released a
statement saying China's human trafficking is among the worst
in the world, right next to Iran and North Korea and Russia. US
Representative Christmas said quote, China has become the sex
and labor trafficking capital of the world. So a big motivation
for the cage the granny says is to prevent her two little girls
from being kidnapped and sold a slave labor or sold into China's
booming sex industry.
Now telling me that was a podcast and not something on
mainstream that I don't think that would ever air would it?
Not that was a podcast, okay, well, bingo, Boom shakalaka.
So, and not only, and what we're saying here is this, if you're
going to be super woke, and what we're doing is we're going to
hold you to your own standard. I don't expect anybody in the NBA
that hasn't been outspoken and political, to say anything.
That's not what we're saying here. What have you got to be
critical? Do you have to keep that same energy? That's what
I'm saying. I criticize. If you criticize America, I mean,
America, we're putting kids in cages, then you have to
criticize the Chinese for putting kids in cages. And it's
pretty much for the same reason.
Well, and it may, there may be nuances to both, you know, we
know that we're not like really in dog cages at the border. And
I'm sure there's nuances to what kind of cages they keep them in.
And but yeah,
I mean, we're doing meme wars
name. Yeah. The meme is here. Yep. This is
memes here. Okay, so also on immigration. We've talked about
immigrants being second class citizens. Let's go to 28.
Fun, Jiang Mei moved to Beijing with her family more than 10
years ago. But she still feels like a virtual stranger in the
city. She now calls home fun holds a rural Hueco, a kind of
domestic passport that defines people's rights if they move
away from home rights, like where your children can be
educated, and three daughters having to move schools four
times in the last few years.
Chinese citizens should have all the same rights and benefits
equally from public services. So that's the very least we can do
to acknowledge the contribution the migrant workforce has made
to transforming China in the last 30 years.
So there's your dreamers, your DACA kids? Yeah, this is, you
know, the more different we we seem, the more alike we are in
it.
That's that's the whole point of this exercise, sir. To show that
the elite no matter where they're at,
they'll throw your kids in
a cage.
Or treat you like I said, it's a second class citizen. And the
weird thing is, these are the people these actual people are
Chinese. These are citizens. Yeah. But they just come from
raw China. Or if you want to say across the imaginary line. Yeah.
I mean, I mean, they're treated as second class citizens, and
they're held in that. There's nothing to be fixed there. All
right. So now let's go to the second second part is exercise.
Mike Pence.
Why were people dancing outside of Mike Pence his house for
Adam?
Which time
when he first got elected, what was he being accused of by a
certain community?
Well, he's, he's a gay hater. And he is all for conversion
therapy.
27, Adam, harassed, detained or sometimes medicated against
their well those are just some of the trials facing members of
the LGBTQ community in China.
And now a new documentary from fusion called the naked truth
had China queer is examining what it's like to be gay in
China, and how activists are working for change. Here's a
preview.
Archie young couldn't believe it when he heard a gay man was
being held against his will in a mental hospital. After hearing
the shocking recording, made available only to fusion, he
dropped everything and took a seven hour train to the small
city of Juma Dion, on arrival at young immediately called the
police and a lawyer. The lawyer agreed it was extreme and
illegal. So he went inside the hospital asking to see you who
you who told the hospital doctor that he was being kept against
his will and he wanted to leave. He was discharged that same
afternoon, despite the protestations of his wife had
been married to her for 10 years pretending to be straight. Wow,
there's plenty to stand up against and when you sub take
those dollars in NBA players, NBA Live, it's gonna be
clarified NBA super woke players that want to make virtue signal.
That's what we're talking to here. You're being the ultimate
hypocrite.
And that's all I'm saying here.
I mean, honestly, maybe you just want to play basketball. Go home
cash or cheque and joy live. I believe that's your right But
when you thought you're like you said, when you thought that boom
arraign Yep.
This how it comes back and hit you.
And it's, it's, it's so interesting that Fox is doing
this. And and I think as you eloquently explained earlier,
they will have to stop. Because the, you know, the dollars flow
all the way through all of the shoe companies. And China's
involved in all of those because that's mainly where they come
from, although it's there's some diversity in where they're
manufactured. But I think it's a very short window that we've
seen here where you get a Whitlock coming out and some
other things that's going to close because I don't think they
have it in them. I don't think they have the balls to to to be
in even a little, little, little less hypocritical. It's just it
just doesn't fit the model.
And the media companies
are also tied in, you know, the movie companies, we said, we
just pulled back the like a little edge of the rug of really
the bigger problem. Like Mike said, the movie companies, the
video game companies, even fast food industries, all of these
embed with these bad lack of better word communist regimes.
Yes. But okay, go ahead.
I was gonna say as hard many of our politicians, the amount of
Chinese money thought flowing through Washington for campaign
donations is really outrageous. It's not talked about. But it's
there. I mean, it's you can look it up. There's so much money
flowing through K Street, you know, where the lobbyists are?
Mm hmm. And it's America's big business. That's that's what
we've always been. But yeah, this is this is very precarious
this is you're putting the big money in the hands of some
players who you would and have, man how many times I've heard
coaches complain about the players being on Twitter. And it
being distraction getting Yeah, actually affecting their playing
now could affect the whole the whole organization or multiple
organizations. It's this is, I'm glad you did this showed me oh,
this is very good. Because no, I mean, and I didn't know about
the 36 Olympics. It puts a whole new take on the I mean, I know
the Olympics are one big money making organization. So we
should have known better. But wow, this is this is this. It'll
be interesting to see how this plays out. Unfortunately, I
think the American public just wants to see basketball and they
won't care.
Well, that's, that's, that's all we want to see. And we don't
want to hear I mean, like I said, I'm a sports fan. Don't
mix my politics with my sports. I like politics, for it to watch
it. You're saying and I like sports. But I don't want to mix
the two together, right? Because sports is a is an escape. It's
an inmate's escape form from everyday life. And that's,
that's why you get such a push back. Now, we're at the tail end
of this exercise. The last thing America and its and its and its
administration has been accused of is racism correct or not?
Well, it's the first, the middle and the last things. Everything
is racist about this administration. We know that,
right. 29
the advertising industry in the United States has been the
target of plenty of criticism around a lack of diversity and
racial sensitivity both in employee ranks and in
advertising. But when it comes to the perception of racial
insensitivity, or outright racism, this laundry detergent
commercial shot in China is sparking more concern than most
modern commercials. The advertisement which shows a
paint spattered black man being transformed by the power of soap
into a clean cut Asian man has ignited debate on social media
sites and a bow from the country's largest cinema chain,
not just show it after it went viral on English news sites. The
Wall Street Journal's Josh chan reported that the ad for Kia OB
laundry gel balls has been circulating around the Chinese
internet since the end of March. But it wasn't until a China news
blog saying highest wrote about it on Thursday that the video
began to attract global attention. So is the ad
offensive you decide. The ad opens with this black painter
with his face and shirt smeared with paint birding with a
Chinese woman as she does her laundry. She beckons him over xx
he's going to kiss him and then pops a detergent gel ball into
his mouth, shoves him into the washing machine and sits on the
cover. He then emerges as the classical prototype of a Chinese
man Oh,
can we see that video somewhere? Is that is that not available. I
saw you too. I'll tweet it out.
Basically, it's but it's a it's a confluence here because we
also have kind of like the eating Tide Pods in there, you
know, throw the tide pod, the liquid gel ball in his mouth.
Yes. The washing machine he comes out as Asian man. That
definitely wouldn't fly here in America.
That's great. So, and finally, the biggest faux pas
and racism if there is one is blackface. Yes. Would you think
is that considered racist?
Adam? What if
someone's walking around in blackface in the United States?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, sure. I probably everywhere. But yeah,
of course, it's. If it's if it's literally blackface, as in the
Al Jolson minstrel show, yeah, super racist.
Already you be the judge.
However, in China itself, there was a rather controversial
television program. We do have some of the images to show you.
There's been a lot of people talking about this around the
world today. And this is the Spring Festival Gala on CCTV.
It's an annual variety show to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
And aside from live sporting events, this is actually the
most watched program in the world. There may have been as
many as 800 million viewers of this last night. And as you can
see there from the images, it featured a Chinese actress in
blackface made up to look like a black woman. She also has fake
buttocks on to give her a very protruding backside. And a lot
of people felt that this just really wasn't appropriate in
2018. It's time things.
Yeah. Yeah.
That sounds pretty racist. But you know, the Chinese and many
Asian cultures are incredibly racist against each other.
Chinese hate the Japanese. The A lot of people dislike the
Japanese who were very ruthless in the past century, the North
Koreans met all Koreans are anti Japanese and that people are
racist.
This is very true.
Well, no, it's but idea I don't think that is appropriate
anymore. In in the 21st century, no, of course not the same as
you know, we don't do caricatures of Chinese within
the pointy rice hat on and Ching Chong, ha, you know, we don't do
that either.
Right? Because it's racially insensitive.
Yeah, it's the main dish. Yeah. If the super woke,
NBA players want to, you know, address anything,
be consistent.
If you want to go to you know, if you want to go Come here, you
know, and call out things when you go there call out the same
identical exact things that are happening there?
Well, but they won't
really, I was gonna say, my friend do not do not get old
waiting for them to do that. And I really don't know where they
go from here. I'm sure that they're all still hoping for a
massive destroy distraction by Wednesday. But I got a feeling
the president our president is, is may just keep that on the
radar if it's advantageous to what he's doing.
If he needs a distraction. Yeah, or
negotiate because it's gonna become cyclical, because it's
kind of like, Oh, yeah.
What about the NBA over there? You know, it's,
this is what you do. This is what you do. And like I say,
issues are brought up. It's a fascinating story, a fascinating
story, because it has so many layers. And as we see, as
history repeats itself, and no matter what the group of people
that is, the lead artists and they take advantage of the lower
classes the same way. I think that's the you know, the
synopsis of the show.
Well, and then I will add to that the power is in our hands,
if people really care and if they really find that the
hypocrisy should not stand. There's many ways for consumers
to change the attitudes of companies and governments, in
fact, but it has to be genuine and people really have to stand
up and people have to walk away from products and services that
they enjoy and I am not so convinced that that's anything.
Anyone who loves basketball or any other sport really wants to
do. I think they would like this to go away. But I think it's
very important for children, Chinese American or otherwise,
who idolize these players to be to hopefully educate And
subsequently aware that these may be false prophets and who
they're really worshipping is on a green piece of paper. Yes,
is that exactly right? That's exactly right. So I always tell
people vote with your dollars if you don't support something
don't spend your money your time with it. And that's a real
that's a real way you could impact things
yeah meanwhile go spurs. Hey Moe, thank you so much, man.
Another great Moe Factz with Adam curry is in the can.
And as I always say, pay attention to everything and the
truth will reveal itself.
Remember, we operate under value for value please go to
MoeFund.com mo e fund me.com. And we'll talk to you next
Monday, everybody. Bye bye.