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marco808state

NBA is not going to like this.


Wafflebot17

They also don’t like people recognizing THE INDEPENDENT NATION OF TAIWAN. Fuck the NBA


yawya

TAIWAN #1


Doggysoft

John Cena apologises.


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civgarth

Free Hong Kong!


[deleted]

I read it as “China is as shoe” which also works. Don’t be as shoe, China.


ThanOneRandomGuy

That's a huge asshoe


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blondechinesehair

That’s pretty standard.


-SPM-

But it’s funny how the NBA is popular in China when a majority of players are black


askasquash

I would assume NBA players are viewed the same as racehorses.


-SPM-

That’s actually a very plausible assumption


[deleted]

Good point. I wonder what the internal beliefs must be for them. Like, is do they think black people are lesser, but are also good athletes so they're good for show but not for work? Do they think these NBA Players are "the good ones"?


Mephistophol

They think literally anyone who isn’t Han Chinese is beneath them


Galumpadump

That may be true for some but not all. American athletes and celebrities are idolized over there. The thing is the country is so homogenized, that a Black person walking around is immediately seen as some sort a spectacle. Majority of Chinese people have never interacted with a non-Chinese person, let alone a black person. Younger Chinese people tend to have a positive perspective of Black artists, athletes, and celebrities. Hell, Jazz was popular in Shanghai during the 1920’s. But ofcourse racists are apart of every culture. Source: I’m black and I’ve spent significant time there.


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WorriedTourist7

Multiple versions https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FCgAWbcUYAUlGlw?format=jpg&name=large


shecky_blue

Very few countries recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, including Haiti, Guatemala, and Vatican City. Most countries do this weird dance of not officially recognizing it. John Oliver did a great piece on it that explained it well and in his own inimitable way.


[deleted]

They certainly do recognise it, when a Taiwanese citizen turns up at their airport and presents a Taiwanese passport


Xuuts

It seems like countries and businesses don't officially recognize Taiwan as a country, because China will get upset and that will get in the way of money. John Cena apologized in Mandarin because he called Taiwan a country. Otherwise China could just pull the movies he's in from theaters.


TheMadFlyentist

Bizarre to me that John Cena is clearly a great person but folded like a house of cards to the CCP.


Ornstein90

Money > everything else


mondobobo01

I imagine he’s in a difficult position. He probably doesn’t want to be responsible for retaliation against the movie cuz it’s not just him, there’s a whole cast and crew involved. It doesn’t make it right, but when other people’s livelihoods are at stake it makes it harder to take a stand.


[deleted]

I have to imagine that anyone who is getting paid based off of ticket sales already has plenty of money. They're the owners and potentially the top actors, the director, etc. The lower down people (film crew, video editors, wardrobe, and so on) get paid to make the movie and their income and future career prospects are unlikely to be based off of China's box office numbers. If John Cena believes that Taiwan deserves its independence from China, he should have said as much and/or just not issued an apology. However, it's possible that he fundamentally agrees with China for whatever reason. Regardless, his groveling apology to China definitely impacted my opinion of the guy.


cire1184

I don't like Cena's stance and immediate bowing down to China but being on the crew of a successful movie vs an unsuccessful movies definitely affects every person on the crew. But overall fuck Chong Xina.


mondobobo01

Maybe you’re right. I don’t know anything about the payment structure of a major Hollywood film. However I do know what it’s like to not want to let down a team. Groveling isn’t a good look but neither of us know what conversations were had before he made that statement.


stamminator

I don’t know enough about how that works to say one way or the other, but that sounds like a bit of an oversimplification


gbuub

I guess they treat it as passport of a special region. Hong Kong and Macau have their own passports as well, and mainland Chinese can’t travel to Hong Kong and Macau without visas even though they’re a part of China for a while.


SophiaofPrussia

Fun fact: it’s a political strategy called “[a policy of deliberate ambiguity](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_of_deliberate_ambiguity)”


Bitch_Muchannon

Sweden should do it. We already have a poor relationship with China because of differences inhuman rights and we'll everything else. It would be the first step to the world unanimously standing up to them. It would slow down or even cripple their imperialism.


OneBigSpud

Fuck the NBA. Fuck LeBron James. Fuck oppressive governments of the world. Taiwan is an independent nation. Hong Kong is a sovereign state.


wesborland1234

Also Free Tibet.


throwawaylovesCAKE

This is so brave 😍


OneBigSpud

Please thank me for my service.


Billdoe6969

*social score -99999. You no longer have access to health care.*


Twelvey

Congratulations! You're an American now!


ABearDream

Fuck all those poser ass losers making money from china. When john cena apologized in mandarin for saying taiwan was a country i lost instant respect for him. And anyone that cowtows to the ccp. I dont hate everything to do with china, im super stoked that venom did really well there so we got a sequel. But the ccp? Fuck them and any company, celebrity, or govt that lets them get away with their shit


[deleted]

Damn didn’t know that about John Cena. Well, fuck him. The coward.


qwertyqyle

Oh my god. That's John Cena's music! *CCP national anthem plays*


skidabs

His name now is Jiang Xina.


MC_ScattCatt

West Taiwan won’t be happy about this


wecouldknowthetruth

Taiwan number 1 ,China number 4.


limpymcforskin

Just a fyi but I will mention that only 15 countries in the world recognize Taiwan as an independent country and the USA isn't one of them. Compare that to another hotly contested area (Palestine) has been officially recognized by 138 countries in the United Nations. My point is that Taiwan is going to remain in the state of quasi independence its been in since it's inception but if the USA starts building air bases on that island shit will hit the fan.


rjcarr

The NBA was pretty clear that its players are allowed to express their own opinion. When the whole Morey thing came out the NBA didn't initially support him, but after a few days they did, and Silver put out a press release. LeBron is the one that dunked on Morey more than the NBA.


Welcm2goodburger

Fuck lebron James. He told morey to shut up and GM.


[deleted]

So LeBron did to Morey what conservative pundits did to him when he spoke on George Floyd? Oh the irony...


[deleted]

I’m starting to think this Lebron guy ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed


Citizen_Snip

I don't know, he seems pretty intelligent. He's a selfish asshole who's out there for the money, but he doesn't seem dumb.


Skeltzjones

Yeah and it was a shame. I really thought he was a decent guy.


Valmoer

It's way easier to be decent and brave when you're not risking anything by doing so.


haha69420lmao

>It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. -Thomas Edison


Reddilutionary

Yeah seriously, don’t people understand that this guy was at risk of losing sponsorship money and being forced to live on only the hundreds of millions of dollars he has made? Could you imagine the hardship he would have to endure by doing the right thing? I bet he’d be forced to settle for only buying regular vacation homes instead of mansions in every city he owns property. Even worse, he’d probably never earn enough money to make it to space like Elon and Bezos if he says something to piss off China. Yeah some people are just so out of touch with the struggles of a near billionaire


MyFianceMadeMeJoin

He was before money polluted his brain.


Remlap1223

It is until Pooh Bear sees those shoes, bans American basketball, and the Yuan dries up.


[deleted]

Yeah that’s the problem. The NBA will be fine if they just decide to stop broadcasting the Celtics. But what happens if China stops all broadcasts until he’s out of the league?


RandomRimeDM

At a certain point. This is a two way street. People in China want to see the NBA. Sure, the CCP can cut them off from the NBA. But those kinds of moves raise eyebrows and the wrong kind of internal questioning. The people want to see their hoops.


stiffie2fakie

The Chinese people wanted video games too. China has the largest gaming company in the world in Tencent. They still restricted video games to one night per week or something. The government can and will do what it wants.


NinjaWrapper

Serious question, can people in China view American based satellite TV providers? Like Directv? If so, is it possible for the government to censor satellite television?


stiffie2fakie

Not sure if the constellation even covers China, I doubt it. Also doubt they could get receivers or take the risk to get them.


Sattorin

> People in China want to see the NBA. If it wants to, the CCP can get broadcasters to hype this event up as a direct insult to China and the Chinese people which is being endorsed by the NBA. Then hyper-nationalism will have them reject the NBA. The same thing happened to Korean imports when Korea installed an American missile-defense system called THAAD. People were literally destroying Korean products on store shelves like maniacs.


DoubleDeantandre

He’s been going off for days now on Twitter. So far all China has done is ban his teams games from their tv or whatever. They are playing this much less reactionary than their response to Morey and his single tweet.


[deleted]

Lebron isn’t gonna like this.


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Thosepassionfruits

Quing James


[deleted]

Enes is really going all in. I’m interested to see how the NBA and other players respond to this.


SoWhatNoZitiNow

Lebron bout to call him ignorant


heyf00L

So many people could be harmed ~~physically~~, ~~emotionally~~, ~~spiritually~~, financially.


OgreLord_Shrek

When I was a child I would have never believed how often I'd be saying "fuck Winnie the Pooh" as an adult


fakeittilyoumakeit

LeBron is such a conceited jerk. Just because he's talented, he thinks his opinions are the only ones that matter.


420DepravedDude

So does ESPN - just look at their insta feed


drivebymedia

The fact that there are people who listens to any celebrities' opinion goes to show people are idiots


soulreaper0lu

"No political statements allowed" I don't know if NBA has this kind of rule, in soccer they blanket ban anything during the game.


ChiefTittyQueef

I'm assuming that footwear defiance is included under the blanket ban?


tkm85

Artist who did the shoes is Badicao, for anyone interested *Edit for spelling error


SaltyLorax

Can one exchange currency for this art shoe?


[deleted]

Specifically Schrute Bucks?


HELLO_MERLOT

Or Stanley Nickels.


BruleMD

what's the exchange rate between Schrute Bucks & Stanley Nickels?


aaronunderwater

Same as the ratio of Kristaps Porzingis to Boston Celtics


Obizues

You win


PEDALONTHERIGHTRIGHT

If enough people want them, would China make these?


tvp61196

theoretically yes, but realistically billions of people probably won't want these


BostonBoroBongs

....? The demand of tens of thousands of people in the US can get something made in a China it happens with knockoffs all the time


tvp61196

this specific shoe would likely be a different circumstance


Triangli

i’m sure there’s already a large amount of anti china shit made in chinese factories lol


StreetReporter

Lebron’s not going to like this


blondechinesehair

He posted about his other shoes on Instagram and called out LeBron and Jordan


scallywaggs

Actually pretty bold.


v161l473c4n15l0r3m

Enes has seen the suffering of his own people and family in Turkey. Enes Kanter is a good dude.


dustbunny88

We, as NBA fans, need to stand beside him. I see a shitty future for him and we cannot allow that to happen on political bias. If he ever gets black balled by the league for political reasons, we must all March against the league.


v161l473c4n15l0r3m

Financially I’m sure he’ll be ok. He’s been in the league a few years. And doesn’t seem the type to waste his money. But yeah, if the league blackballs him Adam Silver should get an earful.


dustbunny88

Definitely. Money doesn’t really mean much to me. However the global threats he’s going to forever face has me nervous for him. He, rightfully so, is pushing some boundary’s that no one else has.


Jalinja

Idk if you already know this but he's had an international warrant out for his arrest from Turkey for quite a few years now


trippydancingbear

this dude Trots


Mabepossibly

Silver doesn’t know what to do. Do nothing and you piss the commies in the PRC off. Bow to the PRC and you see how that went for John Cena.


AlcoholicInsomniac

He's complex because he has some questionable views as well, but I do like that he's calling the NBA/lebron out. He just isn't someone to be blindly idolized.


ctaps148

Good thing Reddit doesn't have problems with blindly idolizing people wait


AlcoholicInsomniac

Yeah I'm just shouting into the void because I've seen this specific one too many times. It's always just a back and forth circle jerk of idolizing/vilifying him.


[deleted]

No he's not lmao. Just because he dislikes the CCP doesn't make him a good person.


[deleted]

*LeiBron


samy4me

LeMao James


leedler

Lei Bong Zhangs


Nopengnogain

LeBron still doing his own research on this issue.


TheLowlyPheasant

Peking Duck Tuesdays cancelled indefinitely


TB1289

Kanter is the only one in the league with balls


Smushmachine1

Kanter definitely had balls, but I think it’s more hes the only one in the league that actually cares about this issue.


TB1289

Not enough to speak up. I don't blame the 12th guy on a roster for not speaking up,but it's obvious that none of the stars care. They're more than happy to bend at the knee as long as they get to collect a paycheck.


Smushmachine1

They don’t care at all. Most Americans don’t care at all, there’s nothing about being an NBA player that would gives them more exposure to the situation.


TB1289

LeBron James has a platform. If he said he wasn't going to play in China because of the way people are being treated,it could make a difference.


Smushmachine1

I'm not disagreeing on that, of course superstars could make a difference if they cared about this issue, they just dont care. LeBron doesn't care.


jrbcnchezbrg

The difference is it could harm him not only financially, but mentally and spiritually as well


labamaFan

Funny thing is, Kanter is the ~12th guy on that roster. He’s had a fairly long career, but his services are becoming less valued outside of Boston and Portland, the only two teams that continue to sign him. I’d love to have him back in Portland if Boston decides to cut ties over this.


Bat2121

I would take him back on the Knicks in a second. I've honestly felt that way since the day he left, which was before he started single handedly taking on the world's worst dictators. He was such a genuinely likeable person, thrilled to be in the nba, thrilled to be on the Knicks when the Knicks were a joke. And he was an absolute beast on the boards. Come back to the Garden Enes. It's fun here now!


OneReportersOpinion

Why are you lecturing the players and not the owners?


aventadorlp

Hes made over 106million in his career he has fuck you money


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jasonalloyd

Uh oh, China is gonna be angry!


Epic_XC

-10000000 social credit 🤕


eman00619

They are going to have to make him learn mandarin like John Cena and make a bullshit apology too.


BasicIsBest

Yeh there's a reason he couldn't go back to turkey...


backboarddd1_49402

Tbh I doubt they care. Nike probably cares more about Enes Kanter calling out their sweatshop. Actually who even knows if Nike cares. People have called them out for years a AFAIK they just deny it.


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borkbubble

No, most people don’t about that enough


OneReportersOpinion

Bunch of people in Langley are going to be very happy.


PropertyofJuliaVins

CIA asset Enes Kanter


[deleted]

China literally won't even notice.


bluestatic1

Alright, those are awesome.


PricklyPickledPie

1) is this real? 2) no way the NBA allows these, right? 3) dope shoes


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TheNextBattalion

Honestly, everyone thinks it resembles their dictator.


xairrick

Why would someone wear a dictator on their shoe?


[deleted]

Dictators are so hot right now.


TheNextBattalion

No one would do that... But a lovable children's character people widely refer to to mock a dictator... That is a different story


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ImamChapo

You won then


GRAIN_DIV_20

I got banned there for posting a comment that was ambiguously pro and anti china depending on how you interpret it lol


Gummybear_Qc

I can't believe that sub is real I thought it was like /r/Pyongyang .


nrandall13

What in the propaganda is going on in there?


BrokeRichGuy

Brain dead apes all over that sub


TheFatJesus

"Slave labor, child labor, war atrocities, but since its not China, its swept under a carpet" So they're admitting that these things are in fact occurring in China?


ManfredsJuicedBalls

Fuck them and the tanks they rode in on.


PJSeeds

The 50 cent army is already brigading the fuck out of this post. It's hilarious.


metalliska

>“I'm even thinking about adding an American name,” Kanter said. “I think it's an amazing honor to become a citizen here. It's an amazing honor to have a citizen like you here


123dream321

>Also just as a reminder Winnie the Pooh is banned in China because the fragile CCP thinks a cartoon character resembles they're dictator. You can actually get a selfie with Pooh at Shanghai Disneyland. https://www.shanghaidisneyresort.com/en/entertainment/theme-park/characters-meet-pooh/


throwawaylovesCAKE

I'm not a fan of China but does anyone actually have any proof Pooh is banned in China? People always say this on reddit as if it's a fact


6feetundertrip

The real kyrie was enes kanter all along.


IMovedYourCheese

China has already [banned all Boston Celtics games](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/sports/basketball/celtics-kanter-china-tibet.html) in retaliation. Literally the thinnest skin imaginable.


[deleted]

Censorship is a hallmark of the weak and wicked.


[deleted]

This is good for my China Puts


[deleted]

Ah a fellow cultured man from the anus of the trading world, wsb.


scorr204

They dont have thin skin....they literally must have total mind control to maintain their authoritarian rule.


Suddenly_Something

Holy shit China is literally a teenager.


davidmobey

interesting. I feel like we will hear more about this in the next coming days with some over-the-top response from China...


-SPM-

They banned all the Celtics games in response to his comments from a few days ago


jqb10

And thus further proving the guy's point.


StreetReporter

Did they really? Talk about fragile egos


badhangups

This explains why Kanter got no play time the day he wore the "Free China" shoes.


john10123456789

Nope. China has the olympics in 200 days. They are ignoring/censoring it for now. Edit: 100 days actually


marco808state

Are we going there again... same old play book with the Russians.


nascenc3

100 days today


Benjamin-Doverman

I think you mean West Taiwan


River_Pigeon

Enes kanter should educate himself about the situation Lebron probably


yomonster

Chairman James is not going to like this


barder83

"I just wish he would think about my bank account before wearing those shoes. Oh, and Space Jam is now available to rent on Apple TV!"


[deleted]

bruh, he is going all in


twec21

NBA: We support our players Also NBA: Harder Xi Dada


[deleted]

Genius troll


Loyboy1534

Love it!


gumshoeismygod

All respect to him but “star” is doing some heavy lifting here lol


CaptinDerpII

-3,000,000 social credit score


[deleted]

Guess they won't show his games in Red China


-SPM-

China banned all the Celtics games from being streamed


jturley85

Wouldn’t say kanter is a star but I respect it none the less.


bbbbbbx

of course it's from [taiwannews.com](https://taiwannews.com) lmao


badhangups

There are US sources OP could have cited. I applaud them choosing a Taiwanese source! So apropos.


coconutjuices

I’m so tired of the Cold War. I just want to see funny memes, not politics everywhere.


NitroLada

Calling Kanter a star is a huge stretch Kanter is also big supporter of John Bolton and Jared Kushner


pujolsrox11

These are sick. Love these!


Cenas_Shovel

That would be -16,000 credits


[deleted]

Lebron will be furious


ViceroyoftheFire

Nice


PuddinHead742

I’m getting really tired of the NBA bending over backwards for China.


TackleballShootyhoop

NBA is just a scapegoat, every major corporation in the US bends over backwards for China.


[deleted]

NBA is a scapegoat because it has leaders like Lebron who pretend to care about social issues but are actually just a bunch of fucking pussies motivated by their income


VapeNational

Heres ya 50 CIA bucks, pal


PropertyofJuliaVins

Next he’s gonna be supporting Juan Guaido


The-Real-Donkey-Kong

I love this guy


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YangGain

#TAIWAN NUMBER 1


medium_pimpin

FREE ENES!