If the NBA really wanted to make a statement it should have never issued a statement, much less two.
No need to complicate things when two team owners had already genuflected to the irate citizens of China. Or when James Harden took it upon himself to apologize to an entire nation.
The simple path for the NBA was to do what the creators of the show South Park did this week after finding themselves caught between an authoritarian regime that tolerates no dissent and the pile of cash that doing business in China can bring.
