LeBron James is one of the highest-paid professional athletes, having earned at least $55 million in endorsement deals and tens of millions of dollars in salary. The Akron, Ohio native has grown from a highly-touted high school basketball recruit to an international basketball star for the National Basketball Association (NBA).
James has the ability to use his platform as one of the greatest players of his generation for good. And he has, such as his philanthropic efforts to improve education opportunities for inner-city school-age children.
But these positives are quickly overshadowed by his hypocrisy when it comes to freedom of speech. When Houston Rockets official Daryl Morey tweeted support for the pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party blocked off all NBA content from the country. Although Morey deleted the offensive tweet, China did not budge from its position that it was wronged by Morey’s public support for its political opponents. Hong Kong has had a long antagonistic relationship with mainland China’s Communist Party and has resisted political pressure and changes since its transition from the United Kingdom to China in the late 1990s.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told the press that he supported Morey’s right to an opinion, but that it hurt the NBA’s finances and goodwill with China.
When asked about Morey’s tweet, LeBron James did not defend the right to free speech. “Yes, we do have freedom of speech,” James said, “But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others when you only think 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.”
James’s statements implicitly supported China’s Communist Party, which has a long list of human rights abuses and atrocities. For example, the Communist Party had conducted several brutal purges under the dictatorship of then-leader Mao Zedong, such as the “Great Leap Forward.” The Great Leap Forward led to between 18 to 45 million deaths.
Currently, the Communist Party is repressing Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms and is trying to enforce an extradition clause to imprison critics in mainland Chinese prisons or labor camps. It also has forcibly removed Muslim Uighurs from western China into labor camps.
Yet James came out in support of Black Lives Matter and said that black men fear being shot and killed by police officers every morning. “I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as Black people in America,” James asserted, “Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified.”
James also launched a get out the vote non-profit called More Than a Vote to allegedly thwart voter suppression and mobilize black voters.
But James’s actions and words beg the question: Why did James support freedom of speech in the United States, but not Morey’s tweet about a democratic Hong Kong?
Morey recently announced his resignation from the Houston Rockets to take time off and recharge. NBA critics then pointed to Chinese Communist Party pressure for Morey to resign as a potential reason for his resignation.
Rumor is that James has a significant financial presence in China when it comes to sponsorships and advertising revenue. He has a $32 million a year contract with Nike, and Nike’s annual revenue in China was $6 billion from 2018-2019. But his actions and words speak for themselves: James cares more about his money and earnings from China and is a hypocrite on free speech and freedom.
Editor’s note: ESPN announced this week that former Rockets official Daryl Morey will join the Philadelphia Sixers NBA franchise. The move sparked rumors that Morey’s resignation from the Houston Rockets could have been related to his tweet about Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, contrary to the narrative that he resigned to take a year off to recharge.