Rockets' James Harden Says 'I'm Staying out of' NBA-China Controversy

Houston Rockets superstar guard James Harden said Sunday he's no longer going to discuss the controversy between the NBA and China, which stemmed from a Twitter post by Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of the Hong Kong protesters.

"I'm staying out of it," Harden told reporters. "I'm focusing on what we have and trying to get better. We're a week and a half away from the regular season."

Morey tried to defuse the situation by explaining his thought process leading to the now-deleted tweet:

It caused a firestorm, however, as 11 Chinese companies ended their relationship with the NBA because of the controversy, per CNBC's Amelia Lucas and Lilian Wu.

The NBA and China opted to proceed with two preseason games in the country between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, but the league brought an early end to players' media availability.

Commissioner Adam Silver released an extended statement in response to the controversy:

"It is inevitable that people around the world—including from America and China—will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences.

"However, the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way."

Harden, who ranked third behind LeBron James and Stephen Curry in Chinese jersey sales during the 2017-18 NBA season (via ESPN's Fang (Michael) Yuan), has no interest in letting the dispute linger. He quickly changed the focus of his meeting with media Sunday to getting off to a strong start in the regular season.

"I remember last year, we didn't get off to a great start. We had to climb out of that hole," he said. "So this year, we’re trying to avoid that and trying to get off to a better start, and it starts now."

The Rockets, who just returned from exhibition games in Hawaii and Japan, have two more preseason contests before they kick off the regular season Oct. 24 against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.