LeBron James is back on U.S. soil, which means he’s free to speak his mind.

That’s different from China, where you’re not allowed to do that.

So naturally, LeBron was asked about the Daryl Morey tweet that set off a public relations shitstorm of epic proportions, the pro Hong Kong message that even affected a Philly exhibition game and saw two fans kicked out of the Wells Fargo Center. James was in China with the Lakers while most of the nonsense was unfolding, and he was asked about that crapola before last night’s Lakers/Warriors preseason game.

Here are two of the quotes he gave, via 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. And so many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and say and we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.”

…

“I believe he was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation, and if he was, then so be it. I have no idea, but that is just my belief. Because when you say things or do things, if you are doing it and you know the people that can be affected by it and the families and individuals and everyone that can be affected by it, sometimes things can be changed as well. And also social media is not always the proper way to go about things as well, but that’s just my belief.”

Uhhh… yeah. Woof. I get what he’s saying, but obviously LeBron was ripped to shreds. That line about “a lot of negative” coming with freedom of speech was never going to go over well.

He went on Twitter to expound on his comments:

He’s saying that Morey put the NBA and his teammates in a difficult situation. They were stuck in China while an international PR crisis was unfolding. The Chinese government put the kibosh on communications over there and there was no way they were going to comment until getting back to the U.S. They had to shut up and dribble for a week.

But most of the reaction is people on both sides of “the aisle” shredding LBJ for being a Commie lover or something along those lines, crushing him for failing to show leadership or denounce the Commies instead of licking the boot.

Here’s a sampling:

So there you have it.

The NBA has handled this so poorly that they have united folks on the left and the right.

Good morning.