Shaquille O’Neal just dunked on anyone who questioned Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s support for Hong Kong.
O’Neal opened up about the recent controversy between the NBA and China during a pre-game show on TNT Tuesday night as the NBA kicked off its latest season, according to CNN.
O’Neal sided with Morey, who was under fire earlier this month for sharing his support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
“As American people, we do a lot of business in China, and they know and understand our values, and we understand their values,” O’Neal said, according to CNN. “And one of our best values here in America is free speech. We’re allowed to say what we want to say, and we’re allowed to speak up about injustices, and that’s just how it goes. And if people don’t understand that, that’s something they have to deal with.”
O’Neal said the entire controversy was “unfortunate for both parties” but still, “Daryl Morey was right.”
Charles Barkley pushed back against the notion and had a back-and-forth with O’Neal on the controversy on the TNT program.
An interesting note: TNT shared a tweet that referenced the discussion but it was later deleted, according to The Daily Beast.
O’Neals comments come as other NBA figures have been scrutinized for their comments. LeBron James made the most controversial statements, calling Morey “misinformed” about the situation in Hong Kong, according to The Daily Beast.
“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 informed about the issue, as reported by the Deseret News.
“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.”