It's not even about trying to shyt on Bron. It's just the fact, even alluded to in his quote from over a decade ago, that he's not going to piss off Nike no matter what fam. If the situation from last year with China had no implications involving Nike, I feel pretty confident he would have been more outspoken on the issue.
There's a limit to how far some will go when it comes to potentially affecting the wallet. That's why the comparisons of any of these guys nowadays to cats who truly gave up everything like Ali is a huge stretch.