LeBron James faced a lot of criticism for comments he made about Daryl Morey and the NBA's ongoing China controversy. Many in the NBA world took him to task for siding with China over Morey, who had expressed his support for the pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters. Memphis Grizzlies swingman Andre Iguodala, however, doesn't think the criticism James has received is entirely fair.
Speaking on Ebro in the Morning, Iguodala explained how he feels about the whole situation as someone who saw it unfold from the sidelines. "It was interesting, because if you keep up with the tech space you see this all the time," he said at the 10:30 point of the interview. He went on to explain how complicated the relationship between Western companies and China can be, and as such it can be difficult for people to have a certain stance if they don't have the full picture.
"It's very hard to make like a very comfortable, very confident opinion about it," he continued. "It's tough... The thing that bothered me the most was when we make our statements about being home, about being American and issues we have in America, it's like, 'Shut up and dribble.'" This is a reference to Fox News host Laura Ingraham's infamous comment in which she criticized the Lakers player for his political statements, which many perceived as racist. Ingraham, who is an avid Donald Trump supporter, said she was not interested in hearing about politics from "someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball."
"It's interesting in this situation with China, they're shoving a camera in our face and be like, 'No you can't say no comment we need you to speak on this,'" Iguodala continued, highlighting what he believes is a double standard. "They ready to attack LeBron for making a statement because they don't like his statement, they feel like he should have took another stance. But when he's home and he makes a stance about... and it's like, 'No this is not your place to make that statement.' That was just mindblowing. That's what bothered me the most."
Iguodala added that LeBron is "in a difficult situation," and it's unreasonable to expect him to have a statement that will make all parties happy. "What I got from the interview was... They had to go over there and play," he said.
