On the one hand, covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics for this newspaper was one of the most thrilling assignments I’ve ever had. I was there for each of Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals inside the blue-hued, cube-shaped National Aquatics Center. I saw the basketball “Redeem Team” go 8-0, capped by a terrific 118-107 win over Spain.

I spent four hours one day walking the magnificent Great Wall, thinking to myself the whole time: “Not bad for a kid from West Hempstead.”

But there was also an inescapable feeling that clung from the moment I stepped off the plane at Beijing Capital International airport until the moment I was wheels-up home. We would joke around with the colloquial “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!” because it was easier to laugh than wring hands.

But it was real, and it was pervasive. I won’t say I ever felt in any danger; quite the other extreme, it was clear there would be no way for even the most clever terrorist to foil China’s big party. But I did feel … limited.

The internet was intermittent everywhere. There were certain websites you simply couldn’t access. We would befriend some locals who spoke perfect English, and they always seemed to have something they were dying to say, on the tips of their tongues … but never did. They knew better.

We were guests there, every bit as much as LeBron James was last week, when his Lakers played the Nets in a pair of exhibition games. As much as we could sense the daily repression of expression, we weren’t going to stage a protest. But we weren’t going to deny it, either. It was as plain as the Great Wall. It was as obvious as Tiananmen Square.

James, back in Los Angeles on Monday night, was asked about the infamous Daryl Morey tweet that lit a controversy there (“Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”). He said this:

“I just think that, when you’re misinformed or you’re not educated about something … you never know the ramifications that can happen. Sometimes you have to think through the things that you say that may cause harm not only for yourself but for the majority of people. I think that’s just a prime example of that.”

James, who thought things through plenty when he saw how much those words inflamed most of the free world, later tried to walk some of that back, talking about the “difficult week” he and the NBA had just endured.

Look, James can feel however he wants to feel. He can spew this nonsense — let’s specify it as “misinformed” nonsense — all he wants precisely because a fundamental tenet of American life is to allow a forum for all opinions. Even if he knew — had to know — what life in China is really like within his first hours in the country.

Here’s a question for James, and the rest of the NBA:

Do you think Yao Ming would feel free enough to say the same thing in his country? Does it bother you that he couldn’t, even if he wanted to?

At all?