Players and coaches around the NBA have taken shots at President Donald Trump and defended Americans’ right to peacefully protest, with LeBron James naturally receiving the most attention for calling Trump a “bum.” When asked about his remark today, James had some fun goading one reporter into repeating the word.
“It’s not a name call—you a bum,” James said. “Me and my friends call each other that all the time. I’m not his friend, though.”
Though he seemed amused about Trump huffily disinviting the Golden State Warriors from visiting the White House, even when they were never really invited, James was more serious when talking about the impact that President Trump has on young people:
He doesn’t understand the power that he has, for being the leader of this beautiful country. He doesn’t understand how many kids, no matter the race, look up to the President of the United States for guidance, for leadership, for words of encouragement. He doesn’t understand that, and that’s what makes me more sick than anything, that this is the number-one position in the world ... And we are at a time where the most powerful position in the world has an opportunity to bring us closer together as people, and inspire the youth, and put the youth at ease on saying that, “It is OK for me to walk down the street and not be judged because of the color of my skin or because of my race.” And he has no recognition of that. And he doesn’t even care. Maybe he does, but he doesn’t care.
Returning to the original question, LeBron says he has no regrets about calling the President a bum. “If I did, I would have deleted my tweet.”