President Donald Trump cited LeBron James’s controversial past statements as he picked Michael Jordan when asked who the NBA’s greatest of all time is.
“Well, Michael Jordan is a guy that’s a friend of mine,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House on the day it was announced James had signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. “I play golf with him. He’s a really good guy, and I think LeBron is, maybe, he’s a racist, but maybe he doesn’t like Trump. I don’t know, but I only like people that like me, so I would say Michael Jordan all the way.”
James and Trump have called each other racist over the years, with the president making the same claim in 2021 after the NBA’s leading point scorer criticized the police officer accused of killing Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, in Columbus, Ohio.
“LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League,” Trump said in a statement at the time. “His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning. He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!”
James had earlier shared a photo in a since-deleted post on X of Nicholas Reardon, the police officer who allegedly killed Bryant, with the caption: “you’re next #accountability.”
Likewise, James has said that Trump is racist multiple times, including in 2018 when he said during a press conference that “The guy in control has given people and racism, negative racism, an opportunity to be out and outspoken without fear.”
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The small forward also described Trump as “a bum” that year during the president’s public spat with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry.
James, 41, announced he would be playing for the Sixers next season after signing a two-year, $8 million deal.