Blake Griffin has one hope in NBA's conflict with China

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NBA commissioner fires back at the vice president over criticism of the league's response to China

Gillian and Leland break down the NBA's response to China.

DETROIT – The start of the 2019-20 NBA regular season was overshadowed by the conflict between the league and China after one executive tweeted his support of pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters.

NBA stars mostly have stayed out of the choppy waters when it comes to the league’s frayed relationship with the Communist government -- and Detroit Pistons star Blake Griffin followed suit Sunday at the Forbes Under 30 Summit.

Griffin was asked whether he had an opinion on the situation and he conceded that he wouldn’t comment on the matter because he didn’t know too much about U.S. politics, let alone geopolitical issues.

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“To be honest … at the risk of sounding ignorant, there’s so many things in our government that I don’t completely understand, so I don’t pretend to know what’s happening over there,” Griffin said.

“My only hope is that no one gets hurt.”

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Griffin made his appearance at the Forbes event at the Masonic Temple in Detroit. He graced the cover of the 30 Under 30 magazine feature last year.

The NBA’s rift with China began over Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeting his support for pro-democracy protesters earlier this month, which eventually snowballed into a conflict between the league and Beijing.

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The Chinese government has since made crackdowns on coverage of the league.

Games have been blacked out on state television while the country’s streaming service, Tencent, has shown only a few games.