LeBron James said he thinks Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey “wasn’t educated on the situation at hand” when he tweeted in support of Hong Kong.
James told reporters Monday that people need to be careful about what they tweet and say, as there can be ramifications.
“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,” James said.
He added that people could have been harmed “not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually.”
{mosads}James tweeted later clarifying his comments, saying he did not think “there was any consideration for the consequences and ramifications of the tweet.”
“I’m not discussing the substance,” he tweeted. “Others can talk about that.”
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) called out the basketball star for his comments, saying he was “parroting communist propaganda.”
The NBA has been embroiled in a controversy involving China after Morey tweeted his support for pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters. Since the tweet, several Chinese businesses have broken ties with the NBA and NBA events in China were canceled last week.
Lawmakers criticized the NBA’s response to the tweet, in which they called the post “regrettable.”