Former NBA star Dennis Rodman was both defensive and critical of LeBron James for his negative comments about Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who stoked controversy by supporting Hong Kong protesters.
Earlier this month, Morey posted an image that said, “Fight for Freedom. Stand for Hong Kong,” amid increasing tension between Hong Kong and Beijing. The fallout was significant with the NBA first distancing themselves from Morey, while China broke off deals with the league. James addressed Morey’s tweet earlier this week saying that he believes Morey “wasn’t educated on the situation at hand.”
Rodman, who has traveled to North Korea and has a relationship with the country’s dictator Kim Jong Un, was interviewed Thursday on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“I think LeBron James is a very smart individual. I think he’s very caring about the people around the world, especially his charity around the world. But I think you’ve got to understand that we don’t know too much about politics. I don’t want to know too much about politics,” he said.
Carlson then asked if James should “continue to comment on American politics.”
The former NBA player then invoked the First Amendment, to which Carlson responded, “Except for when we criticize China.”
“We have no right as American people to sit there and criticize China or any country in the world in that sense because, you know what, China is one of the countries where they really praised American people. They love sports. They love American people. Hong Kong loves American people. China, I mean, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai. Every Asian country loves American people especially sports,” Rodman said.
He said, “I think that LeBron James should understand, you know what, let the politics be politics, and let basketball players be basketball players.”
