Knee-jerk tweeting a bad idea

Only Daryl Morey, general manager of Houston Rockets, knows what was going through his mind on Saturday morning when he woke up in Tokyo and tweeted a graphic declaring "fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong" - a slogan employed by radical demonstrators who have been trying to hold the special administrative region hostage for almost four months - before quickly deleting it and sharing a dawn view of Tokyo with the comment: Tokyo wakes up.

It may have been, as he later said, "one thought, based on one interpretation of one complicated event", but whatever he had in mind, Morey's short-lived tweet has cast a long shadow over the Rockets' image and business prospects in China, where it has been the most popular National Basketball Association club since 2002 when Yao Ming started his American journey.

Not only has the Chinese consulate in Houston condemned Morey's "erroneous comments", but also the Chinese Basketball Association, chaired by Yao, and all the Rocket's major Chinese business partners have suspended their cooperation.