NBA Players Silent About Endorsement Deals with Chinese Companies Using Slave Labor

The NBA and many of its players have struck multimillion-dollar deals with various Chinese companies, many of which proudly use cotton raised by slave labor.

Even as the whole of the league continues its woke politics supporting Black Lives Matter, condemning Republicans, and attacking states passing election integrity laws, they also continue working hand-in-hand with the communist Chinese who continue to employ slave labor despite international pressure to end the practice.

Even the New York Times noted that the NBA and its players face a growing backlash over their cozy relationship with the communist country. The paper notes that brands including Nike and H&M face increased pressure to stop doing business with Chinese companies that rely on slave labor to raise cotton.

“Chinese brands have publicly embraced the cotton from the Xinjiang region,” the Times wrote last week, “leading to big sales to patriotic shoppers and praise from the Beijing-controlled media. In the United States, two of those same Chinese brands, Li-Ning and Anta, adorn the feet of National Basketball Association players — and those players are being rewarded handsomely for it.”

But players continue inking huge deals with these Chinese companies. For instance, Golden State Warriors player Klay Thompson recently signed an $80 million deal with shoemaker Anta. Thompson once even told his Chinese fans that he hopes to be the “Michael Jordan of Anta.”

Shoe companies Anta and Li-Ning rely on cotton from the Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government imprison their Uyghurs population in large slave labor camps. And state news outlets have praised the companies. The two companies have also pushed statements praising the cotton they use sourced from Xinjiang.

Other members of the NBA also signed on with these Chinese companies. Thompson’s teammate James Wiseman also signed on with Anta. Others include former player Dwayne Wade of the Heat, Jimmy Butler and Precious Achiuwa, CJ McCollum, and D’Angelo Russell, also of the Heat, and Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet.

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