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There were two hits, LeBron James calling President Donald Trump a bum, and Trump hitting the floor. Then there were something like one million more hits as the rest of the NBA began piling on. In what turned out to be a fairly busy weekend for him, the president also picked a fight with the entire NFL and also managed to carve out some time to threaten nuclear war with North Korea. (He was too busy to worry about Puerto Rico.)As more NBA teams hold their media days for the upcoming season, reporters are continuing to ask about Curry, the NFL, and Trump. NFL players similarly did not shy away from sharing their thoughts on the matter, either on their own social media accounts, or to reporters after their games.Asked about his comments on protesting NFL players, Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal called the president "a clown."https://twitter.com/kobebryant…New Houston Rocket Chris Paul pointed out the many other things the president could be concerning himself with instead of players kneeling and White House visits. He also implied that he is blustering blowhard who wouldn't say half the things he says to anyone's face:
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Former Warriors point guard Baron Davis is also Team Clown.
More clowning on the Clown:
We have a "head Cheeto in Charge" courtesy of former New Orleans Saint Lance Moore:
LeSean McCoy straight-up called him an asshole:
"The most divisive person in the entire country":
Eagles defensive end Chris Long called him a "moron," and "famous solely for being a millionaire":
DeSean Jackson went on a little mini rant on Twitter, and also went the clown route, and added "a joke" for good measure:
And in perhaps the most succinct and accurate description—though D-Jax is pretty close—Doug Baldwin called him a "child craving attention."
Some went with more substantive statements on the matter, including Beal's teammate John Wall, who argued quite convincingly that the NFL's biggest stars, specifically naming Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, need to take a stand like their NBA counterparts in order for the movement to really gain steam nationally.
Kobe Bryant also weighed in, tossing Trump's slogan back in his face:
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Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich got straight to the heart of the matter and preached a message of empathy:
And, to bring this full circle, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr dropped a dozen Ls on Trump for being, among other things, hypocritical and racist.
We'll keep a running update as more statements come out.UPDATE: Kyle Lowry compared Trump to his six-year-old son, and Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy released a statement highlighting why athletes are protesting in the first place:"How about the irony of, 'Free speech is fine if you're a neo-Nazi chanting hate slogans, but free speech is not allowed to kneel in protest?'" Kerr said. "No matter how many times a football player says, 'I honor our military, but I'm protesting police brutality and racial inequality,' it doesn't matter. Nationalists are saying, 'You're disrespecting our flag.' Well, you know what else is disrespectful to our flag? Racism. And one's way worse than the other."