On Friday, Oct. 4, 2019, the official Weibo account of the Los Angeles Lakers posted a message teasing the team’s upcoming preseason games in Shanghai and Shenzhen, along with photos of the two cities’ skylines. “Welcome to China, Old James!” one Weibo user responded, using an affectionate name for Lakers star LeBron James. Others scrounged for tickets, which, given the wild popularity of the NBA and one of its most beloved teams in China, were selling for as much as $2,675.
That same day, Hong Kong’s chief executive invoked emergency powers to ban face masks in public, an attempt to deter the pro-democracy protests that had roiled the city the previous five months. The move backfired, sparking a new wave of demonstrations.
In Tokyo, Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, logged onto Twitter. Morey had long followed civil rights issues, often retweeting the ACLU, and counted a number of Hong Kongers among his friends from his days at the MIT Sloan School o
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