From someone that is an avid basketball fan, here’s a breakdown:

- Lebron chose to have an opinion contrary to Morey (GM of Houston Rockets who initiated this NBA debacle from a pro-HK tweet) and expressed Morey shouldn’t have done that without thinking first.

- Lebron gets shit on from pro-HK fans and deemed a hypocrite for being “woke” about black people issues but not on more global matters affecting other groups of people unlike him.

- Lebron signed a lifetime deal with Nike reportedly valued near $1B last year, so there is a shitload of money at stake for him and Nike. Plus he is in an upcoming Space Jam movie with WarnerMedia too.

- Other NBA stars, such as Harden of the Houston Rockets, have mostly declined to give opinions on HK/China to avoid further publicity of comments.

- Teams and coaches have also stayed relatively neutral/reserved to avoid player/team deals or sponsorships being retaliated against.

In summary:

Somewhat unsurprisingly, rich athletes removed from the real-life of a group halfway across the world are more likely to side with personal interests related to “their own world” than potentially tank their personal wealth status for some feel-good comments and short applause.

At the end of the day, maybe this does highlight that we have limits on how much we are actually willing to put forth into caring about something when “walking the walk” comes with self-sacrifice.

People are not wrong to call out these actions or complain about them. Even though not everyone is a celebrity whose opinion gets plastered everywhere, at least everyone can reflect on what they would actually be willing to sacrifice for others or act upon when asked instead of just pointing fingers or throwing stones.

People lost their shit when NFL players advocated for themselves and wanted politics kept out of sports. The vast majority of Asians in America are here thanks to Black people but they have done and will do nothing on behalf of Black people. But Black people are now supposed to advocate on behalf of some Chinese people and get involved in Chinese politics?

Isn't LeBron entitled to his own opinion? Maybe he's pro-China. Maybe he's a fan of what the CCP does.

I thought avoiding forced uniformity of thought and opinion is the whole point of free speech.

Why do we hold our players to more moral high ground than our elected politicians ?