LeBron James seems to be taking in stride the news that protesters in Hong Kong are burning his jerseys in the street.

When asked about the public displays of anger in the former British colony over his criticism of Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet of support for the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations in the city, James simply said this:

“I did not see it, so I don’t have a reaction to it.”

After he was pressed on whether he had “a sense” of how what he said what was felt by those in Hong Kong, James responded:

“Nah, I have a sense of what I said, for me. Like I said yesterday, when I speak upon things, I speak from a very logical standpoint of things that hit home for me and yesterday I obviously gave the thoughts of what I felt and how I saw things transpiring from that week that we were gone.”

James went on to say that he would now stop talking about the issue, arguing that NBA players are not politicians and shouldn’t have to speak on things they are uncomfortable with:

“I talked about it yesterday. I tweeted out a couple of responses to people not understanding my knowledge or what it came from, from my brain and from me learning from the situation. I’m talking about it now. I won’t talk about it again because I’d be cheating my teammates by continuing to harp on something that won’t benefit us, trying to win a championship, cause that what we here for.”

“We’re not politicians. I think it’s a huge political thing. But we are leaders and we can step up at times but there’s times where — I’m not saying in this particular instance — but if you don’t feel like you should speak upon things, you shouldn’t have to.”

"I talked about it yesterday…I'm talking about it now but I'm not talking about it again." @KingJames discusses shifting the preseason focus to the #Lakers winning a championship. pic.twitter.com/7KUfgzroCM — Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 16, 2019

These latest comments have only continued to fuel anger against James, who has spoken up on social and political issues multiple times in the past and has argued that NBA players should not be told to just “shut up and dribble.”

On Reddit, one user has pointed to a cutscene in the new NBA 2K20 game in which James instructs a young up-and-coming player that being in the league is about more than just playing ball. James’ own production company helped to write the game’s story:

“When I first came into the league, I was just trying to prove myself. It was all about ball. It took me a while to understand the responsibility, the opportunity that I was given.”

“You know I speak for those without a voice, people who grew up live I did: poor, without hope. Those people, those kids, they exist on every corner of the globe, and they’re all deserving of a chance”

“I believe no one person is capable of turning the tide, but we all have an obligation, because somewhere along the way somebody picked us up. And that’s why we pay it forward.”