On Saturday, after President Trump said Stephen Curry no longer was welcome to visit the White House in recognition of the Golden State Warriors’ NBA title, a number of NBA stars and other pro athletes offered their support of the Warriors’ guard. Most prominent was LeBron James, whose team has faced Golden State in the last three NBA Finals, losing two of them.
It’s safe to say that, despite the lack of a clarifying comma here, he’s not calling Curry a “bum” here.
U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017
James later explained his tweet in a two-minute video he uploaded on Uninterrupted.
“I think it’s basically at a point where I’m just a little frustrated,” he said. “Because this guy that we’ve put in charge has tried to divide us once again and obviously we all know what happened with Charlottesville and the divide that caused.”
James added that Trump invoking sports particularly irked him “because he’s now using sports as the platform to try to divide us and we all know how much sports brings us together, how much passion it has, how much we love and care, the friendships and everything that it creates.”
James continued:
“For him to try to use it as his platform to divide us even more is not something I could stand for and is not something I could be quiet about. You know, you just look at him kind of asking the NFL owners to get rid of players off the field because they’re exercising their rights, and that’s not right. Then, you know, when I wake up and see a colleague of mine has been uninvited of something he said he didn’t want to go to in the first place, you know, to the White House, that’s just something I can’t stand for. You know, we got Jemele Hill and Colin Kaepernick and all these people are speaking up — it’s for the greater cause; it’s for us to all come together. It’s not about division, it’s not about dividing. We, as the American people, just actually need to come together even more stronger, man, because this is a very critical time and me being in the position that I’m in, I had to voice this to ya’ll. So, love ya’ll man.”
"It’s not about dividing. We as American people need to come together even stronger.” — @KingJames responds to @realDonaldTrump’s comments. pic.twitter.com/UHpzXpb42K
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) September 23, 2017
While James refrained from calling Trump names in his follow-up comments, it’s hard to imagine Trump tweeting anything nice about James in the future, unlike in the past.
On Saturday, others echoed James’s sentiments regarding Trump’s Curry comment plus his speech Friday night in Alabama, when he profanely said any NFL player who protests the national anthem should be “fired.”
Draymond Green, Curry’s teammate, has a question:
Still wondering how this guy is running our country.... 🤔🤔🤔
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) September 23, 2017
Kobe Bryant weighed in:
Here’s the Wizards’ Bradley Beal:
"Get them sons of b***hes off the field!" Really my man? 🤦🏽♂️ #whatswrongwithcuz
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) September 23, 2017
How you gonna withdraw an invite that somebody already said they weren't attending? 🤔🤡
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) September 23, 2017
Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy pulled no punches.
It's really sad man ... our president is a asshole
— LeSean Shady Mccoy (@CutonDime25) September 23, 2017
And ESPN’s Jemele Hill is back tweeting her political observations.
We have the best NBA player in the world calling 45 a "bum" & one of the best NFL RBs calling him an a-hole. What. A. Time.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 23, 2017
Hey @StephenCurry30, welcome to the club bro 😂
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 23, 2017
LeBron’s friend and banana boat co-captain, Chris Paul, spoke up:
With everything that's going on in our country, why are YOU focused on who's kneeling and visiting the White House??? #StayInYoLane
— Chris Paul (@CP3) September 23, 2017
And I doubt he's man enough to call any of those players a son of a bitch to their face...
— Chris Paul (@CP3) September 23, 2017
Robert Griffin III:
Curry was lauded by Mr. October himself:
Steph “very well thought, and eloquently presented ”. Thank you for speaking for the majority. A “Mr October tip of the cap”
— Reggie Jackson (@mroctober) September 23, 2017
Finally, the Seahawks’ Richard Sherman:
The behavior of the President is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. If you do not Condemn this divisive Rhetoric you are Condoning it!!
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) September 23, 2017
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