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NBA commissioner Adam Silver is preparing to restart his league’s season in an Orlando bubble environment. Given the current state of the country there are all sorts of challenges that come with that decision from a health and political perspective.

Among those political challenges is the NBA’s relationship with China. You’ll recall that many of the league’s players and owners shouted down Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey — who has effectively entered NBA witness protection since his October Tweet expressing solidarity with Hong Kong democracy protesters. Normally outspoken NBA players and coaches — the same players and coaches who comment on every Tweet sent by Donald Trump — suddenly went silent when confronted with China’s human rights abuses and stifling of democracy protests.

Golden State Warrior coach Steve Kerr called the question of whether Hong Kong should have democracy a complex situation. Yes, you read that right, Kerr refused to endorse democracy in other countries and said the question was complex. LeBron James said Daryl Morey “wasn’t educated” for supporting democracy and also said American freedom of speech “had a lot of negatives that comes with that too.”

Since that flare up in October the NBA has mostly stayed silent on China.

But yesterday Silver addressed the NBA’s relationship with China and stated that the NBA and China had “mutual respect” for each other’s values.

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