President Donald Trump spent some time during one of his final campaign rallies talking about Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
The President has had a contentious relationship with the NBA and its various players for some time now, and it will no doubt get even more heated after what transpired on Monday.
President Trump began by bashing the NBA’s very highly-publicized ratings woes, but he was interrupted by the crowd, who began chanting “LeBron James sucks” over and over.
“How about basketball?” President Trump said.
“How about Lebron? I felt badly for LeBron. I felt very badly. Down 71% and that’s for their championship — I didn’t watch one shot. I get bored. … You know why? When they don’t respect our country, when they don’t respect our flag, nobody wants to watch. Nobody!”
“LeBron James sucks!” chants at the Trump rally pic.twitter.com/XbSZrhn961
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 2, 2020
The president’s rally crowd in Pennsylvania is now chanting “LeBron James sucks.” Trump responds, “What a crowd!”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 2, 2020
President Trump and James have gone back and forth a lot over the past couple of years. James was recently asked about that during an interview.
“I don’t go back and forth with anybody,” he said.
“And I damn sure won’t go back and forth with that guy. 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.”
Don’t try to rob the greatest UFC fighter of all time. It won’t end well. https://t.co/VtBEWH0kq3
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 2, 2020
President Trump, for his part, acknowledges James is a tremendous basketball talent. He just doesn’t appear to be a particularly big fan of him beyond that.
“He’s a great basketball player, but people don’t want to see a guy that’s that way,” he said. “They don’t want to see that. … He’s a hater.”
The President did not stop there, though.
Braided Tyler Herro is back. You already know what that means. https://t.co/xr5Apwcd23
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 2, 2020
“You don’t want to sit down, watch a basketball game, and then watch somebody that hates your guts, okay.”
James, for what it is worth, has repeatedly indicated that he doesn’t care if President Trump watches the NBA or not.
Now that’s how you do Halloween. https://t.co/C693pk7Nlh
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 31, 2020
“You trying to make me laugh right now?” he said at the time.
“I appreciate that. I really don’t think the basketball community are sad about losing his viewership, him viewing the game. And that’s all I got to say.”
Fortunately for all parties involved, this situation will end one way or the other after this week’s election.
Either President Trump will win and have four more years, or he won’t and everyone will move on. But the incessant campaigning and politics seeping into sports will hopefully become less common.
Related: Bill Belichick Makes Surprising Cam Newton Decision
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.
