NBA's injudicious words compound injury

After the apologetic explanation by Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, admitting the ignorance of his swiftly deleted tweet on Saturday in support of the radical demonstrators in Hong Kong, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta quickly rebuked his employee's costly knee-jerk tweeting. The National Basketball Association then released a statement on Sunday, saying that the tweet's offending many in China was "regrettable".

Despite the differences between the Chinese and English versions of the NBA's statement, this should have served to put the incident to bed, as all three parties tried to distance themselves from that short-lived tweet.

But for whatever reasons, presumably from the pressure it has come under from China-bashing US politicians at home, the NBA has now changed its position, with Adam Silver, head of the National Basketball Association, brazenly endorsing Morey's secessionist-supporting tweet.