Opponents believed that what the Lakers were doing was no different from giving the China Team cheat codes, allowing them to dominate international competition while every other National Team became mere supporting cast.
Once news of the Lakers forming an all-Chinese roster fully fermented, discussion across the basketball world split cleanly into two opposing camps.
On major European and American sports forums, skepticism and mockery came flooding in.
Many American fans felt that the Lakers' move was desecrating the NBA's domestic identity.
They believed that the NBA was an American professional basketball league and should primarily consist of American players. The emergence of a team without a single American player completely violated the league's original purpose.
"The Lakers have turned the NBA into the home court of the China Men's Basketball Team. The league has completely lost its meaning!"
"They gave up every local player just for traffic and overseas markets. The Lakers have completely forgotten that they are a Los Angeles team!"
Some more extreme fans even launched topics on social media calling for a boycott of the Lakers.
They declared that they would refuse to watch any Lakers games in the new season or buy any Lakers merchandise, making the Lakers understand the cost of ignoring local fans.
Some American basketball commentators also spoke out one after another to condemn the Lakers' decision.
The well-known commentator Bales spoke fiercely on his show:
"The Lakers are destroying the league's competitive balance. They are exploiting a loophole in the rules to gather players from the same country, and that is extremely unfair to other teams."
"What the NBA needs is the collision of diverse basketball cultures, not a team of one single nationality. That will strip the games of their original appeal."
"I call on every team to unite and