NBA scraps media availability for remainder of trip to China

The NBA announced Friday that it has canceled all remaining media availabilities during the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets' trip in China this week.

"We have decided not to hold media availability for our teams for the remainder of our trip in China," the league said in a statement obtained by ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "They have been placed into a complicated and unprecedented situation while abroad and we believe it would be unfair to ask them to address these matters in real time."

The NBA's choice to formally separate players and the press was made independent of Chinese authorities, sources told McMenamin. The Chinese government was reportedly behind the decision to bar media availability pertaining to the first game Thursday as a response to Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's since-deleted tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters.

Nets and Lakers players will be permitted to speak about the ongoing situation if they so choose, a spokesperson told McMenamin. However, the players' union has already approved the league's decision to halt all media availability, McMenamin adds, citing a source.

The Nets defeated the Lakers 114-111 in Shanghai in Thursday's opener. Saturday's affair will take place in Shenzhen, a city in the southern Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.