• Controversy: The NBA crisis in China: censorship and billions at stake
  • Crisis: The controversial tweet of the general manager of the Rockets

Lakers star LeBron James criticized Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, author of a tweet about protests in Hong Kong at the center of a dispute between the NBA and China, for not knowing he knew the situation enough.

"I don't want to enter into a verbal dispute with Daryl Morey. But I think he didn't know enough about the situation in question and spoke. He was either poorly informed or didn't know enough about the situation," James said before the Lakers preseason game. against the Golden State Warriors.

"Many people could have been harmed not only financially but also physically, emotionally and spiritually, so be careful what you tweet, say and do," he added. "Yes, we have freedom of expression, but there can also be many negative things that come with that."

Minutes after his statements, James made a clarification on Twitter: "I don't think the consequences of the tweet were not considered. I don't discuss the content. Others can talk about it."

"My team and this league have just gone through a difficult week. People should understand the consequences of a tweet in others. And I think nobody stopped and considered what would happen. He could have waited a week," he continued. The James Lakers were last weekend in China to play two exhibition games with the Brooklyn Nets, amid the turmoil born of Morey's tweet in support of the Hong Kong demonstrations.

LeBron's trips to China

Hong Kong, a former British colony that passed under Chinese control in 1997 and is an autonomous territory, has been shaken since June by increasingly violent protests calling for more democratic freedoms. James said Morey was thinking about himself when he made his comment.

"There are negative consequences that can happen when you don't think of others, when you only think of yourself," said the player who has a million-dollar lifetime endorsement agreement with Nike, and has made a dozen trips to China with the company.

The government and many Chinese Internet users have expressed their rejection of Morey's tweet, seen as a challenge to the territorial integrity of the country. But the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, refused to apologize for Morey's tweet. "I don't come here, either as an NBA commissioner or as an American, to tell others how they should run their governments," Silver said. "We are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression."

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