It’s always unfortunate when NBA players find themselves in pickles. However, its worse when the pickles are international. Yet, it’s been happening again and again for NBA star LeBron James revolving around the same topic, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop soon.
Back in October 2019, Hong Kong was protesting against a set of rules that the Justice System planned to put to use to extradite criminal suspects back to China. Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey had posted a tweet that made the Chinese Government feel he was encouraging protesters.
The Chinese consulate in Houston gave a statement implying that Morey’s comments deeply offended them. China also banned all the scheduled games that were to go on television soon after.
At that time, Los Angeles Lakers star, LeBron James, said some things about Morey and what he felt would be the consequences of his moves.
“I don’t want to get into a [verbal] feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke,” James said, via ESPN.
“And so many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and say and we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.”
However, Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong activist, is holding King James’ Daryl Morey response against him.
Recently, as the protests against racism began, leaders encouraged everyone to vote to bring change. LeBron James felt that voting needed to be more than it was. Hence, he will form a group, especially meant to protect African-American voting rights.
As this news spread, activists like Wong started calling James out. According to Wong’s tweet about the same, it seems he personally believes LeBron James is for civil right. However, but only in his country.
He also highlighted how LeBron not only kept mum about the Hong Kong protests but also tried to shut Morey up by calling him “misinformed”. Wong announced James only cared about money, and not human rights.
Defending democracy is vital, but @KingJames only talks loud in the US. On China, not only is he silent, he actively shuts others up. He called @dmorey "misinformed" and "not really educated" for supporting #HongKong. All he cares about is money, not human rights. Hypocritical. https://t.co/vxVMWIjsjY — Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) June 11, 2020
This is not the first time James has gotten into a feud with the HK protesters. Back in 2019, when James made the comments about Morey, even then the protesters called him money minded and wore masks with a crying James’ face on it.
One protester, William Mok announced to a crowd,
“Please remember, all NBA players, what you said before: ‘Black lives matter.’ Hong Kong lives also matter!”
“James was trying, you know, to take a side, on the China side, which is like ridiculous,” another protester, Aaron Lee said.“He was being honest, financially. Financial is money. Simple as that. LeBron James stands for money. Period.”
As of now, it seems James has a lot on his plate to talk about this. However, we won’t know much unless he gives a statement about it.
poisonmoth on June 14th, 2020 at 10:55 UTC »
It's very easy to stand up for oppressed people when it doesn't affect your income. When there are actual consequences celebrities are suddenly silent.
Man_AMA on June 14th, 2020 at 05:50 UTC »
If it’s not in his financial interest then he doesn’t care.
Hyperbolic_Response on June 14th, 2020 at 05:43 UTC »
He cares for human rights that affect him, like blm. But Asians living on the other side of the world? He couldn't give a single fuck.
The hypocrisy is frustrating. He expects white people to understand his blm arguments, but he won't do it himself for the human rights of other groups.