ESPN’s lengthy report on NBA owner Joe Tsai alleges that L.A. Lakers star LeBron James was more worried about his Space Jam profits than helping the oppressed pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

The article detailing the deep ties Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai has to the despotic communist Chinese regime gives greater detail over how James “raged” to pals about Rockets manager Daryl Morey’s pro-Hong Kong tweet back in 2019 because James worried that his movie, Space Jam, might not get released in China after Morey was seen supporting the liberty movement in Chinese-owned Hong Kong.

Former Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey (Bob Levey/Getty Images)

Morey took to Twitter in October of 2019 with his short, simple message in support of the pro-freedom folks in Hong Kong, where the NBA’s Chinese business partners are arresting, jailing, torturing, and killing people who want democracy to grow in the former British protectorate.

But as soon as Morey tweeted, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” the NBA erupted in fury that Moray would dare say something that could upset the league’s billions of dollars in deals with the red Chinese. And LeBron James was one of those who went into a rage over Moray’s support of freedom.

Early on, James spoke out against Moray and called him “uneducated” about the situation in Hong Kong. Though he never bothered to elucidate just what Moray was missing about China’s brutal crackdown on Hong Kong residents yearning to be free.

But according to ESPN, James was enraged by Moray’s tweet, not least because he feared that Moray’s stirring China’s authoritarian hornet’s nest would cause his then-upcoming movie, Space Jam, to lose money if China blocked it from opening there.

LeBron James in Space Jam 2 (Warner Bros.)

ESPN added that James attacked Morey over the pro-democracy tweet during a meeting with players in China at a Ritz-Carlton. And James also joined Tsai in attacking Moray behind the scenes in an effort to force the NBA to fire Morey merely because he supported freedom in Hong Kong.

This is the same Lebron James who stomps around the U.S.A. claiming to represent the downtrodden and disenfranchised. But, apparently, his support of freedom doesn’t extend to China if it interferes with his profits in the Chinese market.

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