Following the tweet, Beijing severed ties with 11 of the NBA's official Chinese partners, canceled endorsement deals, forced stores to stop selling Rockets merchandise, and refused to air games over CCTV.

LA Lakers star LeBron James - the league's biggest star and one of the world's most dominant athletes - criticized Morey for not being "educated on the situation" and warned that freedom of speech can sometimes have "a lot of negatives that come with it." James said that "so many people could have been harmed" by Morey's tweet, not just financially, but "physically, emotionally [and] spiritually" as well.

Six months later, China is still bitter - and continues to refuse to air NBA games from China Central Television, despite the fact that Michael Ma - the son of CCTV co-founder Ma Guoli - was appointed as CEO of NBA China.

On Tuesday, China's state mouthpiece the Global Times published an article saying that Ma's appointment was nice, but the NBA needs to 'properly handle' Morey over his support of the Hong Kong protests last year.

"if it wants to win its way back to the Chinese mainland market, it should properly handle Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey — who tweeted in support of Hong Kong rioters last year," writes the Times, adding that the NBA has "found itself stuck in the public opinion battlefield between China and the US, as bilateral ties remain tense amid the COVID-19 pandemic."