The disdain between Donald Trump and the NBA is no secret to anyone who has been keeping up.
A lot of the league’s top players (including LeBron James and Steph Curry) have publicly criticized the President, and the President has publicly criticized and flamed players right back.
It has become an all-out war at this point, and Trump is not really doing anything to alleviate it. In fact, in his most recent comments, he may have stirred things up even further.
In a recent statement regarding the criticism often given to him by NBA players, he called them “nasty” and “very dumb.”
Asked about NBA people criticizing him, Trump said some NBA people are "very, very nasty and frankly, very dumb."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 11, 2020
Regarding the national anthem protests, Trump said the league was in “bigger trouble than they understand.”
In a radio interview this morning with @claytravis, President Trump was highly critical of the NBA, saying its widespread protests during the national anthem since the season restarted July 30 have put the league in "big trouble"
"Bigger trouble than they understand," Trump said
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 11, 2020
Trump cited a ratings decline for that view and criticized the league for its social justice protests domestically without speaking out against human-rights violations in China …
"The way they cater to China, the way they bowed to China, it's a disgrace frankly," Trump said
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 11, 2020
Obviously, these are highly critical and borderline threatening remarks by the President. These comments, however, are nothing out of the ordinary for Trump, especially in connection to protesters.
It remains to be seen how the NBA and its community will respond, or even if they will respond at all. Amid the pandemic, and the Orlando bubble games playing out, their focus probably isn’t on responding to a President who has always shown animosity towards them.
Or, at least, it shouldn’t be.
