League navigates political tensions after LeBron James op-ed controversy
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has a thing for basketball, having played the game for recreational purposes while working as a local official in Hebei province, according to state media.
Beijing hopes the league can showcase China as open and welcoming. The government has turned to athletes, academics and influencers to promote “people-to-people” ties aimed at countering hostility from both sides of the political aisle in the United States.
LeBron James at an NBA preseason game earlier this month.Credit: Getty Images
For example, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng, referring to what he described as James’ column for the People’s Daily, said on social platform
Basketball is wildly popular in China. That’s what makes NBA stars so valuable out there, but it also forces players to walk a very fine line between sports and politics.
It’s a line the league has stumbled on before. In 2019, Houston Rockets’ then-general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. This and the league’s refusal to punish Morey kept the NBA out of China for years and cost the league more than $300 million in revenue.
However, NBA athletes who went to China after the incident found a lucrative market.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver came to LeBron James’ defense.Credit: access point
Los Angeles Clippers star James Harden, who criticized Morey, praised China and even hinted that he would move there, was rewarded by Chinese fans. In 2023, he sold 10,000 bottles of wine from his personal label in seconds during a live broadcast in China.
When the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry toured western China in August, he was greeted with a massive drone display sponsored by a local tourism board showing him high-fiving a panda.
Terry Rhoads, a Shanghai-based sports consultant who helped create a market for the NBA in China while working for Nike, said players knew they had to stay away from politics. “Every NBA player that comes to China is given a briefing: ‘Hey, we’re there to have fun. We’re there to make kids love basketball.'”
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Silver said China did not impose any conditions on the conversation ahead of the NBA’s restart. But the dangers of offending China are clear.
And they cut both ways: As James’s segment in the People’s Daily shows, players also face criticism in the United States if they appear too cozy with Beijing.
Adam Mendelsohn, an advisor to James, tried to downplay the incident, saying the media “mischaracterized” the article as an op-ed he wrote.
However, People’s Daily identified the player as the author of the article and promoted him with a post titled “LeBron James Writes for People’s Daily” on his official social media account.
James was also accused of pandering to China in 2019 when he criticized Morey for his tweet.
“Many people may have been harmed not just financially, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” he said at the time. “Yes, we have freedom of expression, but there can be a lot of negativity that comes with that.”
New York Times
