When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last year offered pro basketball as a vehicle for diffusing tensions between the United States and China, he was invoking the positive impact sports can have when it intersects with politics. Sports can provide a positive distraction that helps get a nation through hard times. It can be a unifying factor in the midst of domestic or international political divisiveness.
But there is also a dark side to the interaction between sports and politics, as when the money to be made leads sports conglomerates to partner with oppressive regimes while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses.
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