China, NBA each want something — but without the complications

A few hours before the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets squared off in Shanghai, reporters found out the most highly anticipated moment of Thursday's game wouldn't occur. The NBA announced that media availability for both teams was canceled, meaning LeBron James' deafening silence on Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey's seven-word tweet that incited an international incident would last, at the very least, another day. What was the Chinese government, which has manhandled the NBA all week and forced everyone in the NBA — from Adam Silver to Steve Kerr to James Harden and Chris Paul — to either trip around Morey's support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests or apologize for it, so afraid of?