President Donald Trump called LeBron James “a TOTAL DISGRACE” on Thursday and said he should apologize to “all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag.” The footage he was reacting to shows James stretching his arms and miming a shooting motion during the national anthem.
The video comes from Tuesday, when James made his Philadelphia 76ers debut at Madison Square Garden. He scored 14 points in a 106-100 win over the New York Knicks, the defending champions. Trump posted the clip with text claiming James was “working on his golf swing” and wrote: “While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country!”
The president went on: “I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a TOTAL DISGRACE.”
James answered reporters on Thursday night, before the 76ers’ home opener. “It’s a slow news day at the office, you know,” he said. “Slow news day in the office.” Coach Nick Nurse called the episode “outside noise.” Neither the NBA nor the team has issued a statement.
This is not a new fight. Trump has attacked James since his first term, disparaging his intelligence, and in July he speculated that James is a “racist.” James, for his part, criticized Trump in 2017 during the president’s campaign against NFL players who knelt during the anthem to protest racial injustice, saying the president “doesn’t understand how many kids look up to the president…for guidance, for leadership.”
Nothing in the footage, as ABC News described it, shows James doing anything other than stretching. He is 41 and in his 24th NBA season.
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