NBA stars have developed something of a contentious relationship with various members of the Trump Administration, including the President himself. That has manifested itself in numerous verbal shots being fired in both directions, from each party. Just last week, LeBron James posted a very controversial photo relating to President Trump.
The trend continued this week, when Los Angeles Clippers star Lou Williams took issue with recent comments made by President Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner.
While appearing on Fox News this week, Kushner argued that President Trump’s policies do benefit the black community, and “are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about, but [Trump] can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.”
During the same interview, Kushner also dismissed much of the happenings that occurred across social media following the death of George Floyd in May of this year.
“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue signaling — they go on Instagram and cry, or they would, you know, put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court,” Kushner said. “Quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward. You solve problems with solutions.”
Williams did not take kindly to Kushner’s assessment of the black community or President’s Trump’s policies and responded accordingly.
— Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) October 26, 2020
Williams’ various followers seemed to echo his sentiments to some degree.
That’s REALLY rich coming from a trust fund baby whose dad went to jail for tax evasion and witness tampering – and who has had everything handed to him on a silver platter! I can’t wait for this kushner to go to jail too!
— Lisa Y (@LGY1285) October 26, 2020
I am going to SHOW him I want to be successful and VOTE he a
— STAR 23 ENTERPRISE (@Star23enterpise) October 27, 2020
Wtf ??? He sound dumb as a bih
— (@ImSoLNA3) October 26, 2020
That said, some disagreed with the Clippers star.
He aint wrong, ppl just want everything for free, it happens all over the world.
— Tip (@TipRu112) October 26, 2020
I don’t see anything wrong with what he said…. If you were to go around the hood and ask what changes are you willing to take to change your life most of them wouldn’t even want to budge and would continue to collect food stamps cause it’s easier
— Prodigy (@Unknownkn1ght) October 26, 2020
Bro, this is a partisan news source. it says “implies “ it wants you to be triggered from the start by taking a 13 second clip out of context. Look into what this guy has been doing worldwide in terms of peace deals between hostile nations.
— ONO (@4_dwai) October 26, 2020
Williams is not the only NBA star to speak out on politics this past week. James sat down for an interview recently and described what he would consider a “success” in the coming election.
“I define success by our people going out and voting,” he said.
Antonio Brown doesn’t mess around. https://t.co/6kepeWGtBV
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 25, 2020
“You know, there’s so many stats out there, you can see it every time. Who didn’t vote? What counties didn’t vote? What communities didn’t vote? And a lot of that has had to do with our Black people. So, hopefully, we can get them out and educated and let them understand how important this moment is,” James continued.
“I don’t go back and forth with anybody. And I damn sure won’t go back and forth with [Trump]. But we want better, we want change in our community. We always talk about, ‘We want change,’ and now we have the opportunity to do that.”
Yikes. https://t.co/vWf8xvjpdG
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 26, 2020
Once the election comes and goes, it will be interesting to see what level of political involvement athletes will continue to have going forward.
Related: How DeAndre Hopkins Reacted To Trump Fans On Road
A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
