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Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10

Cook: Little Beijing and our messy, magnificent freedom

A fan drapes a Chinese national flag over an NBA banner during a preseason NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. In response to the NBA defending Daryl Morey's freedom of speech, Chinese officials took it away from the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets. All of the usual media sessions surrounding the Lakers-Nets preseason game in Shanghai on Thursday — including a scheduled news conference from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and postgame news conferences with the teams — were canceled. It was the latest salvo in the rift between the league and China stemming from a since-deleted tweet posted last week by Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets. (AP Photo)
A fan drapes a Chinese national flag over an NBA banner during a preseason NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. In response to the NBA defending Daryl Morey's freedom of speech, Chinese officials took it away from the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets. All of the usual media sessions surrounding the Lakers-Nets preseason game in Shanghai on Thursday — including a scheduled news conference from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and postgame news conferences with the teams — were canceled. It was the latest salvo in the rift between the league and China stemming from a since-deleted tweet posted last week by Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets. (AP Photo) A fan drapes a Chinese national flag over an NBA banner during a preseason NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. In response to the NBA defending Daryl Morey's freedom of speech, Chinese officials took it away from the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets. All of the usual media sessions surrounding the Lakers-Nets preseason game in Shanghai on Thursday — including a scheduled news conference from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and postgame news conferences with the teams — were canceled. It was the latest salvo in the rift between the league and China stemming from a since-deleted tweet posted last week by Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets. (AP Photo)

Heard from an old friend a few nights ago. Name’s Will. He’s a hard-working Chattanoogan, an unforgettably generous family man and friend. Politically, he’s fiercely independent, pledging allegiance, as he puts it, to neither Adam Smith nor Thomas Jefferson, but God.

And he’s a sports fan. Last week, he was watching playoff baseball, but his mind was elsewhere.

“The NBA-China situation,” he said.

Most of you know: Hong Kong is fighting for its life against China, prompting Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey to recently Tweet: “fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”

Seven words.