In a weekend replete with major news, nothing is more important than LeBron James calling Donald Trump, the President of the United States, a bum on Twitter. In the tweet above, The King went after The POTUS after the latter revoked Steph Curry’s invitation to the White House.
LeBron James called the president a bum. How was your weekend?
Good morning. We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
The Warriors had been prepared to vote Saturday morning on whether to visit the White House; on Friday, Curry reiterated he was still firmly against the trip and indicated he wouldn’t be going in any case, which made Saturday’s revoking of the invitation rather hilarious, leading to LeBron’s now-famous tweet.
Steve Kerr responded in typical eloquent, Steve Kerr fashion with a piece for Sports Illustrated. Players across the league jumped to Curry’s defense. The league itself, however, offered only a thin, cautious defense of Curry, and Adam Silver reiterated that he did want the Warriors to go visit Trump. Never did Silver acknowledge specifically why a group of young black men would be really, really opposed to that beyond simple political differences, especially in the wake of Charlottesville. I wrote about that here.
Meanwhile the WNBA, which has been at the forefront of sports-based political protest, continued that for Game 1 of the Finals on Sunday. On a day of protest throughout the NFL, both WNBA teams protested police violence and racism during the national anthem and commissioner Lisa Borders spoke about the importance of athletes sharing their opinions.
Programming note: Training camp has arrived, so we’re back to a five-or-so days per week schedule for the NBA newsletter.
All of that overshadowed a blockbuster Saturday trade: Carmelo Anthony to the Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a second-round pick. The trade happened just days after Melo told the Knicks he’d waive his trade veto for not just the Rockets but also the Thunder and Cavaliers. Neither Houston nor Cleveland really had good trade options that didn’t include a star, so OKC won out. Unsurprisingly, the Knicks screwed themselves over the long term in limiting the trade options. Here’s why the long-rumored Rockets trade never happened. Here’s why Melo needs to change his game to fit in with the Thunder. And here’s my piece on OKC building a new superteam to make up for the one they squandered.
Late Sunday, Dwyane Wade and the Bulls reached a buyout agreement. Wade is reportedly giving back $8 million of his $23 million salary in the deal. That’s a lot of bread just to avoid training camp and Fred Hoiberg! Rumors are circulating the Cavaliers, Thunder, Spurs, and ... uh, Heat?
Game 1 of the WNBA Finals was as glorious as you’d expect. The Sparks won it on a Chelsea Gray stepback. Flawless. Game 2 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Speaking of The Dub, here’s a wonderful Q&A with Candace Parker from Swish Appeal. Parker is one of the most interesting athletes of this generation.
As we saw dozens of NFL players protest police violence and racism during the national anthem on Sunday, we are reminded that the NBA has a rule against that.
Michael Jordan offered up a brief statement about the events of the weekend.
Tony Parker was supposed to be out until perhaps December with a torn quad. He’s been cleared for training camp.
Ramona Shelburne’s tick-tock of what the Warriors went through Friday and Saturday was elucidating.
Be sure to check out the end of our spectacular Top 101 of 2021 effort! I kind of want to change who I picked No. 1 after the events of the weekend ...
It wouldn’t be the start of a new Wizards season without a late offseason injury: Markieff Morris is out 6-8 weeks with a sports hernia.
A case for soccer-style youth academies in basketball.
Derek Fisher is on Dancing With the Stars. He stole High School Musical’s choreography.
How did Draymond Green react to Kevin Durant’s social media fiasco last week? First, he consoled him via text. Then he laughed in his face.
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