Basketball star LeBron James has finally weighed in on the ongoing NBA-China dispute, criticizing Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey as being misinformed about the situation.
The league is embroiled in a standoff with China after Morey tweeted his support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
Although Morey quickly apologized and deleted his original tweet, the damage was done. The league’s Chinese partners suspended ties, state broadcaster CCTV halted all broadcasts of preseason matches, and the Chinese government said the NBA needed to show “mutual respect.”
Speaking to reporters on Monday before a game in Los Angeles, James, who is known for speaking out on social justice issues, called it “a very delicate situation, a very sensitive situation.”
When asked whether Morey should be reprimanded for his tweet, James responded, “I think when we all sit back and learn from the situation that happened, understand that what you could tweet or could say, and we all talk about this freedom of speech — yes, we do all have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself.”
“I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke.
So many people could have been harmed, not just financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and what we say and what we do, even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that too.”
James, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, added that he and his teammates had stayed silent about the situation because they were “not informed enough” about it, and that “I’m not here to judge how the League handles the situation.”
“I just think that when you’re misinformed or you’re not educated about something, and I’m just talking about the tweet itself, you never know the ramifications that can happen. We all see what that did — not only for our league but for all of us in America, for people in China as well,” he said.