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Steve Kerr Just Confessed to a New Yorker Reporter What He Did for China

chinahbzyg image via Shutterstock
chinahbzyg image via Shutterstock

Steve Kerr called Donald Trump a "buffoon" on national television without blinking.

Now he's sitting down with The New Yorker and explaining why he went completely silent when China cracked down on millions of people fighting for their freedom.

What he admitted about Beijing, LeBron James, and his own cowardice is something every conservative in America needs to hear.

Kerr Attacked Trump for Years While Covering for Beijing

In October 2019, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey posted a single tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters.

The NBA panicked.

The league had built a business in China that accounted for nearly 10% of its global revenue – billions tied up in broadcast deals, sponsorships, and player endorsements – and one honest tweet from one honest man was about to torch all of it.

LeBron James flew to China for a preseason game, came back, and told reporters Morey was "misinformed" and should have waited before speaking.

Before mentioning any harm to Hong Kong's protesters, LeBron mentioned the "financial" harm Morey's tweet might cause.

Steve Kerr – the most outspoken coach in professional sports, a man who had loudly attacked Trump on gun violence, on immigration, on virtually every political cause he could locate – went completely silent.

Not a word about the Chinese Communist Party cracking down on millions of people demanding basic freedoms.

Not one.

Trump called it out in real time.

"I watch the way that Kerr and Popovich were pandering to China," Trump said, "and yet to our own country, it's like they don't respect it."

He said Kerr was "like a little boy, he was so scared to be even answering the question."

Trump was right.

The Confession He Finally Had to Make

Five years later, Kerr sat down with The New Yorker and explained himself.

"I gave a really weak answer," Kerr admitted. "I was trying to walk the line."

The reporter asked if he regretted it.

"Yeah," Kerr said. "I was wrong."

Then he explained the math behind the silence.

"We had a lot of players on our team that were doing business in China. A lot of our players would go there offseason. The NBA had this huge relationship with China."

He named the calculation directly: "I was trying to walk the company line and not make the NBA mad."

Let that land clearly.

The man who positioned himself as America's moral conscience – who attacked the sitting President of the United States by name, on camera, without hesitation – decided that Chinese Communist Party crackdowns were the moment to keep his mouth shut.

Because the money was on the line.

Kerr also told The New Yorker he regrets calling Trump a "buffoon" – not because he's changed his politics, but because he was "representing a large group of people" and wishes he'd stuck to policy criticism instead of going personal.

That is not an apology to Trump.

But it is an admission that years of treating the President of the United States as a punchline while quietly protecting Chinese Communist Party revenue was not a coherent moral framework.

It was a business decision dressed up as a conscience.

The Double Standard He Can Never Undo

Kerr isn't alone.

Every woke corporation that slaps a social justice logo on its homepage has a China policy that looks exactly like Steve Kerr's 2019 silence.

They'll lecture you about threats to democracy.

They'll wear ribbons and take knees and issue statements.

But the moment Beijing threatens the revenue stream, the microphone goes dead.

LeBron James told the world that Daryl Morey was "misinformed" for supporting people fighting for their freedom – and listed the financial damage before he bothered to mention the people getting cracked down on.

The NBA that couldn't stop talking about justice had nothing to say when the invoice came due.

As OutKick noted, Kerr still hasn't bothered to give a new "strong" answer on China – the one he couldn't give in 2019 – even now that the admission costs him nothing.

The confession came after the Hong Kong protests were crushed, after the NBA's China money became a settled fact, and at the exact moment his Warriors tenure is winding down.

Courage that shows up only after the stakes are gone isn't courage.

Kerr's New Yorker interview didn't just expose Steve Kerr.

It exposed every celebrity activist who spent the last decade telling you how to think about America – while collecting Chinese checks and staying very, very quiet about Beijing.

The moral authority was always for sale.

Kerr just told you the price.

Sources:

  • Dylan Gwinn, "Steve Kerr Regrets Calling President Donald Trump a 'Buffoon,' Concedes His Comments on Hong Kong Were 'Weak,'" Breitbart, April 27, 2026.
  • Liam Griffin, "Warriors' Coach Kerr Walks Back China Comments as Questions Surround His NBA Future," The Washington Times, April 27, 2026.
  • "Steve Kerr Admits He Was 'Wrong' on Hong Kong, Regrets Calling Trump a 'Buffoon,'" OutKick, April 27, 2026.
  • "Trump Rips NBA Players, Officials for 'Pandering to China,'" CNBC, October 9, 2019.
  • "Why the NBA Really Needs China," Yahoo Finance, November 2019.
  • "LeBron's China Comments and the Financial Fallout for the NBA," Sports Illustrated, October 15, 2019.

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