‘The Daily Show With Trevor Noah’ Zings LeBron James’s Comments On China

Bruce Haring

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They burned LeBron James’s jersey in Hong Kong this week after the NBA superstar seemed to throw his support to that country’s rulers over the street protesters lobbying for freedom.

Trevor Noah noted that if the National Basketball Assn. kept statistics on jersey-burning, Lebron would dominate that category, as his jersey was also burned in Cleveland and Miami when he departed those cities to take his talents elsewhere.

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Forget about Nike, joked Noah on tonight’s edition of The Daily Show. Instead, King James should seek an endorsement from Kingsford lighter fluid.

The host of The Daily Show was remarking on the firestorm of criticism being endured by the Los Angeles Lakers forward, who said earlier this week that Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong’s protests were “misinformed.”

“I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke,” James said of Morey, adding that “Daryl’s tweet put the players and the league in a challenging situation. That’s all I have to say on the topic.”

James was immediately taken to task for that statement, which many saw as a craven way to defend his extensive economic interests with China.

“I get where he’s coming from,” Noah said of James. Morey made the tweets before James arrived in China for what was supposed to be a goodwill tour featuring two games against the Brooklyn Nets. Noah tried to put himself in the same position.”

“If you ask me in China, ‘What you think about China?’ I’d say, ‘I think China has policies. And they’re the policies that allow me to fly home!’ ”

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