Daryl Morey was “misinformed” or “not really educated” when he tweeted in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, touching off a political firestorm with the Chinese government and businesses associated with the NBA, according to LeBron James.
James says despite freedom of speech protections, there can be negative ramifications “when you’re not thinking about others, when you only think about yourself.”
LeBron responded to the backlash on social media, and some protesters burned his jerseys.
Per The AP:
“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. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and what we say and what we do. Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, it can be a lot of negative that comes with it.”
When asked to clarify his thoughts, James went further.
“I believe (Morey) was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation, and if he was, then so be it,” James said. “But I have no idea. That’s just my belief. When you say things or do things, you’re doing it and you know the people that can be affected by it, and the families and the individuals and everyone that can be affected by it. Sometimes things can be challenging as well. Also sometimes, social media is not always the proper way to go about things as well. But that’s just my belief.”
When asked about his thoughts on the political side of the events in China, James echoed Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s belief that he didn’t know enough to comment on the situation.
“When I speak about something, I speak about something I am very knowledgeable about, something that hits home for me, something that I am very passionate about,” James said. “I felt like with this particular situation, it was something that not only was I not informed enough about, I just felt like it was something that not only myself and my teammates or our organization had enough information to even talk about it at that point in time, and we still feel the same way.”
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