The NBA in a letter written to U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said that it has "terminated its relationship with a Chinese-based basketball academy located in the controversial region of Xinjiang," according to Ross Dellenger of SI.com. NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO Mark Tatum yesterday addressed a June 30th letter Blackburn penned to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver "over her concerns regarding the league's relationship with the communist country." Tatum in a one-sentence response to Blackburn's question about Xinjiang wrote, "The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated." Blackburn expressed her disappointment in Tatum's response and said, "It is inconceivable and disrespectful for Commissioner Silver to sidestep an issue that requires real leadership." Blackburn added the reply from Tatum "lacks the appropriate concern and responsibility that should accompany congressional correspondence." In the response, Tatum answered two other questions posted by the senator, "one about a Chinese television station's ban on NBA games and a second on the NBA's relationship with Chinese state-owned enterprise Alibaba." Tatum said that China Central Television's ban on airing its games "has been a 'significant' financial blow to the league, estimated in the 'hundreds of millions.'" In closing, Tatum advises Blackburn to "direct all other inquiries to his attention, not Silver's" (SI.com, 7/21).
