Enes Kanter Freedom isn’t the only former NBA player citing LeBron James as a hypocrite for being a social justice advocate while working with the Nike corporation. Former NBA player Royce White joined the criticism singling out James for “keeping his mouth shut” and allegedly taking a considerable sum of money from the mega sports lifestyle apparel company to go along with the program.
“LeBron James was given a billion dollars by Nike, the establishment, the anti-human, neo-liberal Marxist globalist establishment,” White said on the “No Jumper” podcast. “He was given this billion dollars to keep his mouth shut about the single greatest humanitarian crisis of our generation. And that is the 2 million people being placed in concentration camps in China for no other crime than being Muslim. He won’t speak on that, why?”
Former NBA Player Royce White Calls Lebron James a Sell Out For His Stance on Hong Kong pic.twitter.com/Vsh20NKGUd
— No Jumper (@nojumper) October 9, 2022
According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), more than a million Muslims are detained in China’s Xinjiang region. They are alleged to have reeducation camps, condemned as concentration camps, just one part of the government’s crackdown. There are also almost 11 million Uyghurs — a predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group — who live in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
The Chinese government has reportedly imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and sterilizations, per CFR.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo determined that China’s actions constitute genocide, while a U.N. report said they could amount to crimes against humanity.
“Number one, it’s an economic injustice that he’s done to take that payoff to shut his mouth because really he should have asked Nike for $40 billion. He should have gotten at least $500 million a year because Nike makes $40 billion a year and he represents at least 1/40th of their commercial value. But he took the billion because when you’re a radical materialist and you’re from Akron, Ohio, you measure your success based on what other Black people have.”
Former Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom was the loudest critic in the basketball space, condemning James for his affiliation with Nike. In November 2021, Freedom said that he was willing to have a conversation with James to “educate him” on the human rights violations in China. Freedom has been critical of James and Nike in the past for not speaking up about the subject.
They got all these Black sellouts thinking if they get enough money, the establishment will make a place for them. Wake the fuck up! Kanye West had $140million at JP Morgan and they told him “N***** take a hike.” Why? They’re printing money, they don’t need the money. #Godspeed
— Royce White 🇺🇸 (@Highway_30) October 17, 2022
“Sure, I’d love to sit down and talk to him, I’m sure it’s going to be a very uncomfortable conversation for him,” Freedom said to the media last November. “I don’t know if he’s going to want that. I’ll make that to really comfortable for him.
“I don’t know if he’s educated enough, but I’m here to educate him and I’m here to help him, because it’s not about money. It’s about morals, principles and values. It’s about what you stand for. There are way bigger things than money. If LeBron stopped making money now, his grandkids and grandkids and grandkids can have the best life ever.”
James is the NBA’s first actively playing billionaire and a lightning rod of controversy for his outspoken stance on domestic social justice issues. However, White and Freedom believe that his activism is limited to the issues affecting those stateside and turns a blind eye to international atrocities, especially when committed by his corporate partners.
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