I have the utmost respect for LeBron James, possibly the greatest basketball player ever. I respect him, not for his sport skills, but for his charitable commitments, notably a school in his hometown which he helped create using much of his own money to serve poor children.

In a lengthy locker room locution, however, he was far off base (to use a metaphor from another sport). He accused the General Manager of another team of inappropriate and uninformed remarks supporting the democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, remarks that would harm the income of the NBA. He added that the GM shouldn’t have used online media to communicate his thoughts.

Our son lives in Hong Kong and is in hearty support of the demonstrators, calling the brutal police thugish in their response. China has a long history of suppressing any attempt toward democracy. Remember the terrible response to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Mr. James himself admits he knows little about the situation. If he did I believe he would sing another tune.

For example, the use of water canon to punish and scatter the demonstrators is eerily similar to the use of fire hoses in Alabama to disperse African American civil rights demonstrators in the 1950s and 1960s. And Mr. James’s remarks have been thoroughly covered in the Twitterverse, Facebook, TV, and print media.

I say to LeBron James as I would to another prominent person: Find out the facts before you speak.