Lawmakers Criticize NBA’s ‘Extremely Disappointing’ Forced Labor Response
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Basketball and China have a complicated relationship.
On Tuesday, the chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) want to make it less so, delivering letters to the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) to ask that they prevent the use or sale of NBA-branded gear and garments or NBA game-day shoes made with forced labor, along with any sportswear from companies that have openly touted the use of cotton, rayon and other materials from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), such as Anta Sports, Li-Ning and Peak.
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“Just one day after NBA veteran Enes Kanter Freedom testified before our bipartisan and bicameral commission that the NBPA pressured him to stop his criticism of the PRC’s horrific human rights abuses, we learned that NBA basketball player Kyrie Irving signed a new shoe deal with Chinese sportswear company Anta—a brand linked to the forced labor of Uyghur, Kazakh and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the XUAR,” Congressman Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, and Senator Jeffrey A. Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote to NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA president C.J. McCollum.
Given Freedom’s testimony and Irving’s shoe deal, Smith and Merkley said they wanted to ask about the NBPA’s official positions on the free speech of NBA players and on forced labor “likely used” in making the togs those same players wear and endorse. These include whether NBA players were informed about the risks of endorsing Chinese sportswear companies following the commission’s 2021 letter about the issue, the NBPA’s policy on forced labor and the rationale behind the NBPA’s decision to condone NBA player contracts with companies “complicit in genocide” while “declining to support players’ exercise of their freedom of speech.”
“Given that Chinese sportswear companies continue to endorse the sourcing of materials made or grown in the XUAR—the import of which violates U.S. law—will the NBPA prohibit NBA players from wearing or endorsing such companies until they end their endorsements?” the lawmakers asked. “If not, why not and what policies are in place to ensure that NBA players do not endorse shoes, garments or gear made with forced labor?”
The missives follow a July commission hearing, featuring Freedom as a witness, that delved into the NBA at length. The former Boston Celtics player said that his public repudiation of Beijing, which extended to slogans painted on his shoes, led to his eventual ouster from the NBA. And despite paying “thousands of dollars to the Players Association every month to protect my rights against the NBA…on this topic, they were on NBA’s side,” he said.
Neither the NBA nor the NBPA responded to requests for comment. Sourcing Journal has also reached out to Anta Sports, Li-Ning and Peak.
Smith and Merkley described the NBPA’s response to the CECC’s previous letter, which urged the organization to raise awareness about genocide and forced labor in Xinjiang, along with a possible tie to Chinese sportswear brands, as “extremely disappointing.” They said that they have urged U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop all imports of goods from the companies and that they hope any fresh replies would be “more robust.”
“While the genocide continues, Anta, Peak and Li-Ning likely continue to profit from the systematic use of forced labor in the XUAR,” they said. “The NBPA supported efforts by NBA players to take public stands on important political and social issues in our country. We hope the NBPA, as the leading union protecting NBA players, will help educate players on the risks in endorsing forced labor-made gear and shoes, as well as the link between them and genocide in China.”
