Photo Credit: JONATHAN BACHMAN/GETTY IMAGES

Twitter Rightully Crushes LeBron James For His Pathetic Daryl Morey Statement

After Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the Hong Kong protestors, the NBA has faced a major backlash from China. Everything that has to do with the Rockets has basically been deleted in China. Nike stopped selling Rockets products and in every fan shop or NBA related website or store in China, you’ll only find 29 existing NBA teams from now on.

And ever since NBA commissioner Adam Silver thankfully and admirably stepped in, not apologizing for Morey exercising his freedom of expression saying that freedom of speech and opinion is an important value in the NBA, China cancelled other NBA games and events. While many outlets, players and teams also feared repercussions and therefore remained silent, with ESPN even disallowing any political commentary, while deleting their own videos on that topic (the Max Kellerman take e.g.), LeBron now talked about the situation. Turns out it would have been better for him to remain silent.

In his statement, James was belittling Daryl Morey, basically siding with ‘the enemy’. Not a good look on LeBron:

“We all talk about freedom of speech — yes, we do have freedom of speech. But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself. I don’t believe — I don’t want to get into a … feud with Daryl Morey but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand. And he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially but emotionally, physically and spiritually. So just be careful with what we tweet and what we say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech. But the can be a lot of negative that comes from that speech.”

Mr. LeBron James, the ‘I won’t shut up and dribble guy. The hero, who always speaks out on injustices and wrongdoings is a blasphemer, who only cares about money? True colors after all! This obviously (and thankfully) led to LeBron James getting crushed on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TJCarpenterShow/status/1183929624675307522

All loyalties to the swoosh on his chest. https://t.co/w4I4Sv1NB1

— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) October 15, 2019

https://twitter.com/hemjhaveri/status/1183926725375418368

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/1183922489430282246

so the natural follow up is: What does LeBron think the situation in China is, if Morey was misinformed? https://t.co/yt7jS5UigX

— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) October 15, 2019

I admire LeBron very much but this is precisely what China wants — a chilling effect on American speech. https://t.co/zLH4kp575l

— Eric Adelson (@eric_adelson) October 15, 2019

So @KingJames says the ONE GUY who spoke up for freedom and liberty and against tyranny "wasn't educated on the issue?"

You mean, he needs to be re-educated?

This is an embarrassment. https://t.co/GWMNvu0pHi

— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) October 15, 2019

"When you're not thinking about others, and are only thinking about yourself."

Ironic. Morey's tweet wasn't about himself. It was about people in Hong Kong, who LeBron didn't even mention.

Someone is definitely thinking solely about himself in this situation, that's for sure. https://t.co/pf7irXdQ5u

— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) October 15, 2019

this feels like, in real time, a public comment that’s going to be walked back and repositioned. https://t.co/y90Le1XCjc

— Jason Gay (@jasongay) October 15, 2019

Lebron James just threw gasoline all over a raging fire. https://t.co/xg9oPv1L9Y

— Will Cain (@willcain) October 15, 2019

Daryl Morey: Freedom is good.

LeBron James: Daryl Morey is wrong. https://t.co/9fOUdQqihl

— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) October 15, 2019

LeBron James, leader of the "more than an athlete" movement and champion of social justice, stands up for communist China and says Daryl Morey was not "educated" about Hong Kong protests https://t.co/nxZigcsppu

— Larry Brown (@LBSports) October 15, 2019

https://twitter.com/dave_schilling/status/1183923282271068161?

All loyalties to the swoosh on his chest. https://t.co/w4I4Sv1NB1

— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) October 15, 2019

"I don't want to get into a feud with Daryl Morey but I'd like to get into a feud with the concept of supporting democratic ideals." https://t.co/h3lXkOk1KU

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) October 15, 2019