The NBA wanted to believe that the news media’s interest in the league’s continuing conflict with China was cooling.
LeBron James duly reheated blanket domestic coverage of the topic with an interview Monday night that was widely received as pro-China — to the point that James is suddenly facing his harshest criticism perhaps since “The Decision” that took him from Cleveland to Miami in 2010.
This is clearly not the October that the league at large expected after an offseason of unprecedented roster upheaval. Rather than bask in the uncharacteristically wide-open title race that summer player movement spawned, we’ve spent nearly two weeks fixated on a geopolitical crisis that has consistently overshadowed the basketball.