China has been the subject of all sorts of conversations across the country lately whether it’s about politics, business or humanitarian issues. China and Hong Kong have been all over the news since Hong Kong has tried to gain independence from China.
It has even spread into sports, when Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets general manager, tweeted out a picture with the quote, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” in support of Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters. Morey’s tweet has since been criticized by Chinese officials and most notably Yao Ming, former Houston Rockets center, NBA Hall of Famer and current Chinese Basketball Association president.
But maybe one of the most well-known critics of Morey has been Lebron James. James called Morey’s tweet “uneducated” but later went on to state, “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.”
Seemingly almost every Republican politician, Fox newscaster and Barstool Sports Employee used his tweets to make massive amounts of headlines, all throwing James under the bus. James, a man that has been one of the most spoken athletes on social justice issues, is now being accused as a communist and Chinese-government sympathizer, all because of two tweets.
James is, however, none of those things. He has a strong track record of speaking out against racism, hate speech, police brutality and even started his “I Promise” school which helps underprivileged kids in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. This one mistake shouldn’t overshadow all the good he has done during his career. But what he said was a mistake. James either shouldn’t have said anything or should have echoed the stance that Morey took. As someone who has been so outspoken about injustice in his home country, it was completely out of character for James to make the statements he did.
I think James was more upset that Morey made a tweet that possibly could have put James’ family and other players’ families in danger, as teams were on their way to China to play exhibition games. This leads me to believe that James wasn’t upset about Morey’s words, but the fact he was speaking as a father worried about the safety of his family. But if the words “Fight with freedom stand with Hong Kong” could potentially put NBA players and their families in danger while in China, maybe the NBA shouldn’t have been doing business over there.
Lebron James is a great basketball player and human being. One mistake shouldn’t ruin all the good things he has done and will continue to do in the world. I don’t think this incident will be spoken about ever again. I just wished James would have used his platform to help the people fighting for their rights in Hong Kong, similarly how he has used it to help so many other people.
By Logan Caruso, Contributing writer
carusolj18@bonaventure.edu
