LeBron James has deep, lucrative ties to China because of his partnership with Nike, which does significant business there as a clothing manufacturer and seller.

The global superstar who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers has traveled to the country 15 times since he signed with the sportswear company 16 years ago and visited several Chinese cities promoting physical fitness, education, basketball as a unifier and Of course Nike.

It was a useful relationship. The NBA face was careful not to upset the Chinese – going so far as to call out Houston rockets General Manager Daryl Morey for the timing of his Pro-Hong Kong protesters tweet days before the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets traveled to China for two preseason games. James also said earlier this week that “we have free speech, but there can be a lot of negative things that come with that too,” and “I also don’t think every issue should be everyone’s problem.”

Some sales figures help shed light on why James may have said what he did and accepted criticism for it.

How much is James ‘ deal with Nike worth? He earns $32 million a year from Nike, according to Forbes, and Nike’s revenue in China exceeded $6 billion from June 1, 2018 to may 31, 2019, according to statista.com.

Of course, James isn’t the only NBA player to benefit from selling clothes in China. Stephen Curry has a deal with Under Armour and James harden has one with Adidas, for example.

Chinese Shoe market is hot. Nike’s Shoe revenue in China has doubled in the past five years, while Nike’s U.S. Shoe sales have remained flat the past four years. While Nike’s annual revenue in the U.S. is significantly higher than in China, the growth area is in China.

China is good to James, and that’s one reason he came to look like an apologist for an authoritarian regime that doesn’t value human rights or freedom of speech.

James came off quite clearly that the profit outweighs everything else. Will his comments hurt his image in North America?

“It makes it look like hypocrisy to some people,” David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic vision PR Group, said. “But as far as advertisers and companies like Nike are concerned, it’s not going to have long-term consequences because people aren’t buying shoes or other product that he supports because of his stance on China, on police shooting. They buy him based on his performance playing basketball.”

Johnson said for James to take a hit financially economically it must be something China is doing such as suspending a partnership with Nike.

Mark Francis, a sports business Professor at the University of California, said There are implications for marketing and branding.  

“It’s a big risk to take a side on things,” Francis said. “People have always criticized tiger woods and Michael Jordan for never taking sides on basically anything. It sends this message that they are protecting their brand. But when we get a guy like LeBron who talks about social issues and tries to use his platform for the social good, there’s a risk for a backlash. He’s almost in a win-win situation.

“So I’m surprised he made it public on his thoughts on Daryl Morey. When you take that side, you lose the other side. Even if I didn’t read LeBron’s comments how to be in support of China, people have taken that interpretation.»

Would it hurt James in both domestic income and popularity? Francis predicted James would bounce back quickly.

“In a month or two, I don’t think you’ll hear much more about it. The 24-hour news cycle is spinning pretty fast, ” Francis said. “I salute him for having the courage to speak. At the same time, perhaps he regrets making it public. But it will pass.”

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The Lakers star calls himself “more than an athlete.”

However, James remained quiet on the subject of China until Monday. Once he returned from their week-long pre-season trip to Keith, James had plenty to say. On Tuesday, he said he would not speak on the subject again.

He did not share support for protesters in Hong Kong and did not question China’s human rights record. Instead, James directed his frustration toward Mori, saying Mori was “misinformed” not expecting how tweeting out support for Hong Kong Protesters could affect the NBA and its players ‘ revenues in China.

“This contributes to its brand power in China,” Eric Schiffer, Chairman of reputation Management Consultants, said. “They will look at this as full support for the Chinese approach to Hong Kong. In the United States, however, we are seeing fallout from many who now look to LeBron as a card-carrying member of the Communist party.

“It’s funny, though, because LeBron is just trying to be careful not to push back. The big problem for LeBron, however, is it overshadows all the great work that he does.”

It also overshadows that there Are those in the NBA who share James ‘ feelings. The Lakers also traveled to China in 2013 and remain interested in being among the teams to make future visits. As much as he talked about Donald trump’s rhetoric and mass violence, both warriors coach Steve Kerr and James argued that it’s not as appropriate to comment on foreign Affairs as it is on domestic issues because of their relative ignorance on foreign Affairs.

However, the NBA held out hope that the tensions will thaw after the Lakers and the nets came back. He remains optimistic he will maintain his partnership with China, which began nearly 30 years ago and has continued with pre-season games since 2004.

These tensions resurfaced with James ‘ comments.

“He could have already approached it with more sensitivity to geopolitics and to the broader issue at play,” Schieffer said. “It’s understandable that he also felt pressure given where his salary was coming from and the fact that the NBA doesn’t want to upset the Chinese government. I think people are upset because he chose money over what they see as a lack of support for democracy in Hong Kong. It’s that mismatch that affects his brand today .”

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Bill Bishop has lived in China for more than a decade, and his reporting and commentary on the country have made him an authority on Chinese Affairs. It runs a popular newsletter Sincocism.com focused on China’s Affairs and trying to provide nuanced perspectives on complex topics such as foreign policy and trade.

He doesn’t want to come off as an apologist for James or other NBA players, but he acknowledged, “it’s a terrible situation for players.”

“People say they’re a bunch of hypocrites because they (won’t) talk about China,” Bishop said. “Look, it would be great if they could talk injustice all over the world, but at the end of the day, they are human beings and we should really wonder, is it fair to expect them to sacrifice their careers and the earnings of their friends, teammates and other players.

“It’s genius – and I don’t mean it in a positive way – about how the Communist party created this global censorship mechanism. NBA players learned the cost of the game (about China).

“Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see a situation where LeBron comes out and defends human rights and defends free speech and mentions the plight of Uighurs in Western China. My point is not to tell LeBron well what he said, but is that a fair expectation? These are people who have a lot of money on the line, and you have large corporations with billions of dollars of income assets that are unwilling to take a position.”

Follow Jeff Zillgitt on @JeffZillgitt Twitter and Mark Medina on @MarkG_Medina