WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said basketball star LeBron James is “maybe a racist” when asked how he stacked up against Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.
James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time champion and a four-time Olympic medalist.
He has played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. He made headlines July 24 for signing as a free agent with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Jordan was a six-time champion with the Bulls in the 1990s and a two-time gold medalist at the Olympics. He took off two years at the height of his skills to play baseball.
Because James and Jordan didn’t play in the same eras, fans debate who is the best player ever.
Without getting into basketball statistics, Trump put his thumb on the scale for Jordan.
“Michael Jordan is a guy that’s a friend of mine. Play golf with him. He’s a really good guy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think LeBron is — maybe he’s a racist. Maybe he doesn’t like Trump. But I only like people that like me. So I would say Michael Jordan all the way.”
Trump and James have a history.
James criticized the president during his first time in a CNN interview with Don Lemon. James said Trump was “using sports to kinda divide us, and that’s something that I can’t relate to.”
Trump fired back on what was then Twitter that James had made Lemon look smart despite Lemon being what the president called “the dumbest man on television.”
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