TORONTO, October 23 (Reuters): Hong Kong pro-democracy supporters crashed the N National Basketball Association's (NBA) opening night party on Tuesday handing out thousands of black t-shirts as the Toronto Raptors prepared to begin the defense of their championship title against the New Orleans Pelicans.
While the Raptors gifted the opening night crowd with t-shirts with a gold Raptor and replica championship rings, outside Scotiabank Arena the protesters were giving away black t-shirts with the message “The North Stand With Hong Kong” in bright yellow across the front.
The North reference was a play on the Toronto Raptors slogan “We the North” that is used to market the team.
One volunteer, wearing a black surgical mask and who did not want to be named, said the Toronto group raised close to $34,000 through a GoFundMe page to print 7,000 t-shirts.
The NBA was plunged into controversy earlier this month after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators in a since-deleted post that included an image captioned: “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.”
Meanwhile, Chinese state television did not air the NBA season opening games, underscoring the damage on the U.S. league's business in the country following a Houston Rockets executive's tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters.
China Central Television (CCTV), which holds exclusive TV rights for the NBA, did not air the first regular season game between the Toronto Raptors and the New Orleans Pelicans on its sports channel on Wednesday. It also chose to air the World Military Games in Wuhan instead of the second game of the day between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers.
CCTV has not said outright that it will not show the league's regular season games, but the broadcaster's schedule for the sports channel did not list any NBA games to be aired for the rest of the week.
