It started Monday night.
LeBron James said during an interview Monday night that he believes Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey “wasn’t educated” on the ramifications of sending a tweet in support of antigovernment protesters in Hong Kong, which has severely damaged the relationship between China and the NBA.
James declined to comment about the China and NBA controversy. He did, however, reference Morey’s tweets and how it affected owners, players and the NBA in general.
“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 during an interview before the Los Angeles Lakers played the Golden State Warriors, according to 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.”
James said it was “just my belief” that Morey wasn’t properly informed about the support for protesters.
“I believe he was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation, and if he was, then so be it,” James said. “I have no idea, but that is just my belief. Because when you say things or do things, if you are doing it and you know the people that can be affected by it and the families and individuals and everyone that can be affected by it, sometimes things can be changed as well. And also social media is not always the proper way to go about things as well, but that’s just my belief.”
James walked back his statements in tweets right after videos of the interview went live. He said the tweets were meant to “clear up the confusion.
“I do not believe there was any consideration for the consequences and ramifications of the tweet. I’m not discussing the substance. Others can talk about that,” he tweeted.
“My team and this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it,” James added in a follow-up tweet.
The comments drew immediate backlash on social media. #LeBronJames was trending early Tuesday morning with a number of commentators sounding off against James. Many of the comments pointed to how James often speaks out on social issues and the need for civil and human rights, but wouldn’t do so for Hong Kong protesters.
As The Associated Press reported, Hong Kong protesters responded negatively to James’ comments, too — burning his jersey, stepping on his shirts and smashing photos of James’ face.
“James was trying, you know, to take a side, on the China side, which is like ridiculous,” Aaron Lee, a 36-year-old marketing director, told The Associated Press. “He was being honest, financially. Financial is money. Simple as that. LeBron James stands for money. Period.”
On Tuesday, James said he wanted to clarify his remarks again, adding that he knew his words would be taken differently than how he meant them to be taken.
“I do, and that’s why I wanted to kind of clarify what my thoughts was and what my words was,” James told reporters. “That tends to happen with me, I understand that and I know that every word that I say is gonna be broken down on however you feel or you see (that) I said it. It comes with the territory, and that’s OK. with me.”
James said he didn’t feel comfortable talking openly about the unrest in Hong Kong and China because he didn’t know much about it, according to Dime magazine. He said he has remained focus on helping with other social issues.
Here’s his full response when asked if he has any response to the criticism of his Hong Kong comments, per Uproxx.
“Obviously it’s a tough situation that we’re all in right now as an association, as us as athletes, owners, GMs, whatever, so for. And I think when an issue comes up, if you feel passionate about it or you feel like it’s something you wanna talk about then so be it. I also don’t think that every issue should be everybody’s problem as well. When things come up, there’s multiple things that we haven’t talked about that happen in our own country that we don’t bring up. There’s things that happen in my own community that … trying to help my kids graduate high school and go off to college has been my main concern over the last couple of years, and my school, trying to make sure that the inner city kids that grow up in my hometown have a brighter future and look at me as an inspiration to get out of the hellhole of the inner city. We don’t talk about those stories enough, but we tend to wanna talk about so many other things as well. But there’s issues all over the world, and I think the best thing we can do is, if you feel passionate about it, talk about it, if you’re not, if you don’t have a lot of knowledge about it or you don’t quite understand it, I don’t think you should talk about it, because it just puts you in a tough position.”
James has been affected by Morey’s tweets since they first dropped since the Los Angeles Lakers were playing the Brooklyn Nets at the time in China. NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a meeting with players of both teams. Players voiced frustration that they were being put in the middle of the dispute, according to ESPN.
Players said they were worried about being asked by local reporters about the ongoing situation when the NBA itself had not said anything publicly.
James told ESPN he wants to keep the discussions between Silver and NBA players behind closed doors.
But he said he would return to China if the opportunity arises.
“For me personally, I’ve always been welcomed with open arms,” James said, according to ESPN. “I’ve been to China probably over 15 to 20 times. The main reason why I always wanted to go to China was the game of basketball. The game of basketball has brought people together, in so many different facets, so many different countries, so many different people that you would never, ever expect.
”That has always been my goal, going over to China, the game that we all love and talk about every single day, to bring people together in the most positive way. That is why we were there this past trip. Myself, the Lakers, along with Brooklyn, we were there to continue to promote the game of basketball. ... That is what I will continue to do because this sport has done so much for me.”