South Park’s tweet on the matter mentioned Winnie the Pooh, alluding to China’s ban of AA Milne’s lovable teddy bear after a meme surfaced likening Winnie the Pooh to Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
The tweet also mentions NBA—a reference to Daryl Morey, the GM of the Houston Rockets basketball team, and his pro-democratic tweet declaring his stand with Hong Kong. The NBA has been struggling to control the damage done with this tweet. Morey has since then issued an apology with an explanation that his views have nothing to do with the Houston Rockets nor the NBA, but to no benefit. NBA’s broadcasting partner Tencent refused to broadcast further Rockets matches with the Chinese Basketball Association canceling all 4 games set for Suzhou. Also, China’s online shopping site TaoBao removed all search results for the Houston Rockets, while the popular Chinese basketball forum, Hupu, deleted the Houston Rockets from their site, leaving the NBA with only 29 teams.