Commentary recently appeared in People’s Daily, an outlet for Chinese Communist Party propaganda, under the byline of LeBron James, the basketball star. Associates of James deny that he penned the piece.
“Several Chinese news outlets carried an article titled ‘Basketball Is a Bridge Connecting Each Other’ that claimed to be written by James. A representative for the four-time MVP refuted the story,” The Washington Times reports (September 10, 2025).
How the representative “refuted” the attribution is not explained; perhaps the representative simply denied that the article had been written by James (shown above). That the Reds would run such a piece without the permission of the alleged author is entirely plausible. It’s also plausible that the text, cobbled together from various verbal statements by James, was published under the player’s name with his okay and that he was then surprised to find that agreeing to let the CCP propagandists make use of him in this way turned out to be controversial.
We don’t know which of the three possibilities—LeBron James wrote the reportedly bland commentary (“I am deeply moved by the hospitality and friendliness of our Chinese friends”), did not write it but approved the publication of it using his byline, or was bypassed altogether—is correct. We do know that James’s history, and the NBA’s history, is one of abject submission to the Chinese totalitarian state.
Fight for freedom
In 2019, the general manager of the Houston Rockets at the time, Daryl Morey, posted a tweet expressing support for freedom fighters of Hong Kong: “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” The Chinese government was unhappy about the statement, and perhaps also with the fact that Morey was not forthwith fired; and for a while the Chinese government suspended its cooperation with the NBA and stopped airing its games.
Super-informed LeBron James, who has beliefs about things about which he has no idea, was among the personages who babbled his discontent. “I believe he was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation, and if he was, then so be it. 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….
“I’m not here to judge how the league handled the situation. I just think that when you’re misinformed or you’re not educated about something—and I’m just talking about the tweet itself—you never know the ramifications that can happen. We all see what that did, not only did for our league but for all of us in America, for people in China as well. Sometimes you have to think through the things that you say that may cause harm not only for yourself but for the majority of people. I think that’s just a prime example of that.”
Of what did the misinformation consist? But anyway, what we learned here is that, per LeBron James, one must never ever ever ever ever justly criticize the government of the People’s Republic of China, or say a word for its victims, if this might jeopardize the NBA’s relationship with it.
Perhaps it’s okay to criticize other totalitarian dictatorships when they crush the innocent. The totalitarian dictatorships that the NBA has no relationship with.
NBA does basketball
Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets, “explained” on Twitter. “Listen… @dmorey does NOT speak for the @HoustonRockets. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the @NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization.”
Why does the NBA have to be a political organization in order for someone connected to the NBA to voice a political opinion in public?
James Harden, then playing for the Houston Rockets, also apologized for Morey’s statement: “We apologize. We love China. We love playing there…. They show us most support so we appreciate them.” Apologize for what?
Chinese national Joe Tsai, majority owner of the Brooklyn Nets, parroted Chinese Communist Party propaganda about “separatism.” “What is the problem with people freely expressing their opinion?…The problem is, there are certain topics that are third-rail issues in certain countries, societies and communities. Supporting a separatist movement in a Chinese territory is one of those third-rail issues, not only for the Chinese government, but also for all citizens in China.”
All citizens in China? Even the ones opposed to the PRC government and its treatment of the people of Hong Kong? Nobody in the gang of apologists seemed to realize that the People’s Republic of China does not consist of a single blob mind with single uniform view on all questions, the one announced by the Chinese Communist Party.
Tsai hauled in the opium wars, the Japanese invasion of China, etc., to “explain” why “the hurt that this incident has caused will take a long time to repair” (he provided nothing in his capsule historical summary about the history of the conduct of the Chinese Communist Party, though). Posing as an expert on history and the Chinese psyche, Tsai did not seem to be aware that Morey was far from the first person in the West in modern times to express support for the freedom of Hong Kong. Many have. Using the freedom of speech. Must they all be sorrowfully chastised for touching that third rail that they were too culturally obtuse to realize must never be touched?
Great respect
The NBA issued a craven statement: “We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.”
How to parse this evasive and deflective grotesque asininity? Is it all of the culture and history of China that the NBA “respects,” or just the parts that don’t pertain to the mass murders orchestrated by Mao or to contemporary imprisoning of Christians, Buddhists, and practitioners of Falun Gong; “re-educating” of Uyghurs; murdering of Uyghurs and devotees of Falun Gong in order to harvest their organs? Will the culture-divide-bridging help these victims? How—exactly? How will the basketball games help?
Morey himself apologized for saying something in support of the Hongkongers whose freedom was in process of being crushed by the mainland. “I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives.”
Perspectives
What “other perspectives”? Morey had thought that freedom and democracy were good for Hong Kong; now he saw the other angle, about how subjugation to the totalitarian state may have its good points as well? What difference does it make whether supporters of tyranny are offended by opposition to tyranny? Let them be offended. Even if they do like basketball.
Morey’s original statement was sincere. The sequel, produced under pressure, was patent baloney. The problem was that what he had originally said was noticed. Wasn’t it supposed to be noticed?
Later, though, Morey seemed to stand by what he had said. According to an ESPN report published late in 2020:
What [LeBron] James did not know was that Morey had befriended a number of Hong Kong residents while attending business school and had intimate knowledge of the challenges they faced living in a semi-autonomous region. His decision to tweet his support was neither rash nor uninformed, but a conscious effort to express his solidarity for people he knew well.
Asked months later if he regrets his decision to support the protests in Hong Kong, Morey paused for several seconds before responding, “I’m very comfortable with what I did.”
Is LeBron James also very comfortable with what he did, and is doing?
