James is arguably Nike’s biggest star. He has been outspoken in supporting athletes kneeling during the national anthem, which he defends as free speech, outspoken on American police abusing power, outspoken on minorities being marginalized by government forces.

Well? How does all that not apply to those protesting in Hong Kong? You can flip to any number of videos right now and see them beaten, hosed, tear-gassed.

And you can bet if a Chinese athlete at a major national event got down on his knees during China’s national anthem, he’d be facing a whole lot more than booing.

So will James speak out when he and his L.A. Lakers teammates return from China and those now controversial exhibition games? Or will he sit mute like Harden did, like others in the NBA are doing, because they’re all afraid of disrupting the giant money cart that China represents?