NBA star recently toured China as part of $1 billion Nike sneaker deal
NBA superstar LeBron James, fresh off a tour to China to promote sneakers as part of his $1 billion Nike endorsement deal, touted basketball as a “bridge” between the East and West in an unprecedented essay published by the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
James, a forward with the Los Angeles Lakers, said he has been “deeply moved by the hospitality and friendliness of our Chinese friends” during the 15 trips he’s made to China in his professional career. He praised “China’s basketball scene” and pledged to “contribute to the development of Chinese basketball.”
“I also feel a deep sense of responsibility to promote sports exchange,” wrote James, who is believed to be the first NBA player to write for People’s Daily, the CCP’s official newspaper.
The essay marks a public relations coup for the CCP, which spends millions of dollars a year on propaganda to promote so-called people-to-people exchange between China and Western nations.
People’s Daily, the largest newspaper in China, serves as a clearinghouse for such propaganda. It plays a central role, for example, in the CCP’s campaign to deny Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, publishing pieces like, “‘Xinjiang genocide’ claim biggest lie of the century.” People’s Daily also owns a Chinese app that the CCP used to disseminate propaganda videos criticizing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo after the Trump administration first declared that China was committing genocide in Xinjiang in 2021, ProPublica reported.
The paper also promoted false claims that COVID-19 was “imported” from outside China, and that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine killed people in Norway. In 2023, People’s Daily published an op-ed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, an ally of China, that praised the “special” Russia-China relationship, and alleged that Russia’s war against Ukraine “was provoked and is being diligently fuelled by the West.”
The essay comes as James and other NBA stars seek to peddle their wares in the lucrative Chinese market after years of sour relations between the NBA and the Chinese government. Beijing blacklisted the NBA in 2019 after Daryl Morey, then an executive with the Houston Rockets, expressed support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
James, who has embraced numerous social justice causes in the United States, sided with China’s authoritarian regime against Morey, saying that the executive’s comments were “misinformed” and that Morey “wasn’t educated” about the Hong Kong protests.
“So many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually,” James said of Morey’s remarks.
People’s Daily touted James’s criticism of Morey, and published a series of articles and opinion pieces slamming Morey’s “inappropriate” support for the Hong Kong protesters.
James, whose team lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs this year, was in China last week as part of his “Forever King Tour,” sponsored by Nike to commemorate the future Hall of Famer’s 20th anniversary with the brand. James inked a $1 billion lifetime endorsement contract with the shoe and apparel maker in 2015.
The junket shows the “sneaker wars” for China’s massive market are heating up, according to the Wall Street Journal. Last month, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry toured China to promote his Under Armour sneakers.
“The love has been real the whole way,” Curry said after his Chinese hosts produced an aerial show with 5,000 drones. “I can’t even explain it.”
The James ad isn’t the first time he’s dabbled in political propaganda. James endorsed Kamala Harris for president days before the 2024 election, releasing a deceptively edited video that placed Donald Trump soundbites over racially charged images to portray the Republican as racist.
The Harris campaign paid James’s production company $50,000 to produce the video, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Neither James nor People’s Daily responded to requests for comment.
