US President Donald Trump, on Thursday, attacked NBA superstar LeBron James over what he described as disrespectful conduct during the national anthem.
Trump shared a video of the basketball legend appearing to do warm-up movements while standing in line with his Philadelphia 76ers teammates before their season opener against the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
“While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our country! I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a total disgrace,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
“LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag and all that our country stands for,” he wrote.
The video that Trump used included an internal caption that read, “LeBron working on his golf swing pregame.” It depicted him performing lateral swing motions along with basketball shooting movements.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Iowa on Thursday night, Trump revived the attack, describing James’s actions as “a big scandal kind of a story.”
Trump and James have exchanged jabs previously, and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer brushed aside the president’s latest criticism.
“It must be a slow news day at the office,” he said after the Sixers completed an epic comeback to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-106 in Philadelphia. “Slow news day at the office.”
James, 41, is heading into a record-extending 24th NBA season, now with his fourth team.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Trump’s remarks were exactly the sort of distraction he was training his team to ignore.
“I think that goes right in with other outside noise we’ve already had,” Nurse said. “I keep saying the same thing. All I really care about is getting to the practice floor, getting them in the film room, and getting them to the game floor.
“The focus that they’ve had and the intent and all the stuff like that has been outstanding.”
Trump has previously criticized athletes especially Black athletes for how they acted while the Star Spangled Banner was played before games.
In his first term, Trump singled out NFL star Colin Kaepernick for choosing to kneel during the “Star-Spangled Banner” in protest of racial injustice and police brutality.
