Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James on Saturday joined the chorus of pro athletes denouncing Donald Trump for his attempt to rescind a White House invitation to the NBA Championship-winning Golden State Warriors and team leader Steph Curry.
“U bum,” James wrote of the president, noting that Curry “already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no invite.”
James, whose team lost 4-1 to the Warriors last June in the championship series, added, “Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!”
U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017
Earlier on Saturday, Trump tweeted a disinvitation to the Warriors in the wake of reports that Curry and his teammates were reluctant to follow through on the long-standing traditional White House visit.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team,” POTUS tweeted on Saturday. “Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!”
Curry, as well as Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Finals MVP Kevin Durant, have voiced ambivalence about following the annual ritual visit to the White House in light of Trump’s response to the deadly rally by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia last month.
“I don’t want to go,” Curry said on Friday, according to USA Today. “That’s kind of the nucleus of my belief…(But) it’s not just me going to the White House. If it was, this would be a pretty short conversation.”
Trump’s tweet also comes just hours after the president, speaking at a fiery Alabama rally on Friday night, called on NFL teams to fire any player who protested during the national anthem — a declaration that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decried “divisive” on Saturday.