The Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center was to spend “several hundred thousand dollars” on five billboards featuring NBA star LeBron James with a Chinese flag covering his mouth stating “Silence is Violence.”
The billboards were set to be displayed next to the NBA bubble near Orlando, Florida where James’ team is battling for the NBA championship.
Daryl Morey, the General Manager for Houston Rockets’ was attacked by James last year when voicing his support for the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. “I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation,” James stated at the time.
James’ comments raised the ire of Hong Kong protestors and those who support them, but was exalted by Chinese Communist officials and ‘woke’ and ‘enlightened’ leftist social media users.
James, who has received millions of dollars in sponsorship deals with Nike, who have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese-made products at the expense of slave labour from the authoritarian regime.
The woke athlete is making a name for himself ‘standing up to injustices’ but refuses to make comments about the horrific conditions and slave-wages Chinese nationals are paid to prop up his already bulging wallet, adding insult to injury when James’ criticised Morey for supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong who are currently repressed by the Chinese state.
Tom Anderson, an NLPC official stated to the NY Post, “It’s utterly amazing LeBron James can buy a $36 million Beverly Hills mansion from a bubble designed to cut him off from the outside world yet he can’t find a way to champion basic human rights for all people, including those suffering under the Communist regime of China.”