LeBron James criticized the NBA’s soft stance on Daryl Morey’s pro-Hong Kong protesters tweet — claiming that a player would’ve surely been punished for creating the same “ramifications for the league.”
James made the remarks while addressing fellow players last week at an event in Shanghai, where his team had been for several preseason match-ups against the Nets, according to ESPN Lakers reporter Dave McMenamin, who was also there.
“Hey, what are we doing here?” James began at the ballroom event in which Commissioner Adam Silver was present, McMenamin recounted Tuesday.
“Daryl Morey made these statements, you know damn well if a player made similar statements and caused such poor ramifications for the league, there would be some sort of league recourse,” James allegedly said.
According to McMenamin, James added: “There would be repercussions that the player would have to pay. Potentially, this tweet could cost the NBA hundreds of millions of dollars, which could come out of the players pockets.”
He was referring to Morey’s tweet from earlier this month that read: “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”
The league’s Chinese partners blasted Morey’s comments and dropped all Rockets television streaming, sponsorship and partnerships with the Houston franchise.
Morey has since apologized for his tweet, and the NBA has no plans to punish him despite some calling for him to lose his job.
James has been under fire since Monday when, in his first public comments addressing the controversy, he claimed Morey was “misinformed” and “not educated,” about the ongoing Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.
“Sometimes you have to think through things that you say that may cause harm to not only for yourself, but for the majority of people. I think that’s just a prime example of that,” James said.
Hong Kong protesters were quick to condemn James’ remarks, with some of them even burning his jersey in a show of opposition.