Former president Donald Trump once again took a swipe at Lebron James after claiming he would be the greatest women’s basketball coach in history if he managed to convince the NBA star to switch genders and play for his team.
Trump made those comments while speaking at Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) Student Action Summit in Tampa on Saturday, Newsweek reported. The 76-year-old mentioned the basketball star when he was touching on the topic of men competing in women’s sports.
Trump in his speech, cited instances where transgender men competed favorably in women’s sports and proceeded to registered his displeasure with that, courting the applause of his audience. The former president then suggested he would be “the greatest of all time” if he were a women’s basketball coach because he would scout male athletes.
“If I were a basketball coach of the women’s team, I would be the greatest coach of all time. I’m not a fan of Lebron James at all, I don’t like him, but I’d say, Lebron, did you ever think of becoming a woman? Did you ever, because I’d like to have you on my team. But, think of it, it’s so crazy what’s happening” said Trump.
This is not the first time Trump has fired shots at the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star. During an event in Nebraska earlier this year, the former president spoke about the 37-year-old switching genders.
“I’ll say this to LeBron James, who I don’t like very much,” he said. “I’ll say, ‘LeBron, did you ever have thoughts about going woman? Because if you did I’d love to have you on my basketball team”.
Trump also came after James when he posted a tweet in response to the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in the hands of an Ohio police officer. In the since-deleted April 2021 tweet, James reportedly posted a photo of the officer who allegedly shot Bryant. He captioned the photo, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY”, and ended the post with an hourglass emoji.
After a section of people – including former president Trump – criticized James over the tweet, he deleted it and later explained why he took that action.
“ANGER [does not do] any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened [sic] that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!” he tweeted.
In a follow-up post, he added: “I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because it’s being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
The frosty relationship between Trump and Lebron appears to linger on long after the former left office. Trump also claimed in August 2020 that James isn’t a good basketball player. “I’ve seen LeBron James on TV, and, quite frankly, I don’t think he’s very good at basketball,” Trump said, per The New Yorker. “The media is very unfairly biased in favor of him because he’s a Democrat, and I think it’s a disgrace.
“You look at LeBron and sometimes when he shoots the ball, it doesn’t go into the basket,” said Trump. “If I try to drink a glass of water and miss my mouth, it’s all CNN talks about.”
