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#FreeHongKong: LeBron James under fire over #FreeWOJ, Internet calls him 'hypocrite' for not supporting Morey

Several internet users have slammed James for remaining silent with regard to China’s reaction to Morey, but speaking up against injustice towards Wojnarowski

BY CHAITRA KRISHNAMURTHY

PUBLISHED JUL 13, 2020

Recently, NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN got into trouble when an email he had sent to the Republican senator Josh Hawley started making rounds on Twitter. Wojnarowski was suspended following his “f**k you” mail to the senator. However, he’s been receiving immense support from the NBA community, including LeBron James himself.

Ojn July 12, King James took to Twitter to share the #FreeWOJ hashtag, extending his support to Wojnarowski. But the hashtag gained momentum for all the wrong reasons as Twitter users started trending #FreeHongKong, digging deep into the October 2019 incident, when James said Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey "wasn’t educated on the situation", calling the latter out for tweeting about Hong Kong protesting against a set of rules that the Justice System was planning to use to extradite criminal suspects to China.

The Chinese government later issued a statement saying Morey’s words had encouraged protesters. In response, James had told ESPN, "I don’t want to get into a (verbal) feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke."

Several internet users have slammed James for remaining silent with regard to China’s reaction to Morey, but speaking up against injustice towards Wojnarowski. Twitter users have noted that James only supported China for the money.

"This makes u a huge hypocrite. How can u advocate for WOJ & BLM, but completely zero pushback to China when a HOUSTON GM barely said ànything negative. BLK ppl have it countless ways better then BILLIONS in China & crickets from NBA & ppl like u!” one tweeted. Another added, "I think your misinformed or not really educated on the subject. LeBron will really say anything to keep that fat Nike contract."

Meanwhile, another disappointed user tweeted, "I remember vividly the way you treated ppl in HK, when they were pursuing their freedom and democracy you chose money over humanity. You lost my respect." Some internet users have claimed that James was paid by China to speak against Morey. "Hong Kong people still remember how u asked Morey to stop talking abt the pro-democracy movement of HK coz it will make China angry n hurt ur $$ pocket," read one tweet.