While President Trump has continued with the tradition of inviting championship teams in their respective sports to the White House to congratulate them, it didn’t seem like Trump was a fan of any particular sports outside of golf and Nascar; both of which he’s tweeted about during his presidency.
Outside of golf and Nascar, Trump has criticized independent athletes like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Marshawn Lynch, Megan Rapinoe and many others, especially those who have specifically disrespected the American flag.
But apparently President Trump is apparently an NBA fan now (likely outside of the aforementioned players) and here’s the proof.
Los Angeles was in a whirlwind of seismic events over the week of July 4th. They had two monstrous earthquakes in less than 48 hours that measured at a 6.4 and 6.9, with aftershocks too.
But there was also a seismic event in the NBA world, which was undeniably great for the league.
Coming off of winning the NBA championship and Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard was the most coveted free agent left after most players made their decision-destination within the first 12 hours.
Not Kawhi Leonard though. He took his sweet time and had know-nothing sports media analysts speculating about where he would end up. Actually, many of them, like Chris Broussard and Jalen Rose were nearly 100% sure where he would go; the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors respectively. Boy, were they wrong.
Leonard finally made his decision to return to his LA heritage and play for the other team in Staples Center, the Los Angeles Clippers. But the sweet kicker of the deal too is the Clippers making a blockbuster trade for Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George.
It was restoring balance to the NBA universe. If he had joined LeBron James and Anthony Davis in free agency then it would’ve been the biggest big 3 of all time. Leonard joining the Clippers creates the biggest parity the NBA has seen in decades.
Two of the biggest winners were Clippers head coach Doc Rivers and President of Basketball Operations Jerry West.
And Trump surprisingly congratulated both of them on Twitter.
TSD NBA, a “Sports Daily’s coverage of all things NBA,” posted a tweet that said, “Doc Rivers is a big winner as Clippers land Kawhi Leonard, Paul George.”
Trump commented, “Great Coach, Great Guy!”
To address the elephant in the room, it’s surprising Trump commented on a no-name NBA “Sports Daily’s” Twitter account that only has 334 followers.
And then NYT Sports tweeted, “Jerry West isn’t afraid to go big. “Don’t be afraid to make that tough decision if you need to,” Steve Ballmer recalled West telling him. A look back at @TheSteinLine chat with The Logo about the Clippers:”
Trump commented, “Jerry will be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, well deserved!”
Again, he commented on New York Times Sports? Doesn’t he hate the New York Times?
It’s likely what happened is that he wanted to congratulate both West and Rivers; and when he searched for them on Twitter, he probably just commented on the first ones he saw – knowing it didn’t really matter which sports news institution it was.
But Trump is an NBA fan?
He did specifically say Rivers was a “Great Coach” so wouldn’t that imply he watches the NBA? Also, Trump obviously follows NBA news or else he wouldn’t have known about what happened.
Or, counterpoint, the biggest losers were the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors – the former because LeBron didn’t get Kawhi and now has to deal with him in the same arena multiple times a year and the ladder being that they lost Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets so that means the Warriors are no longer dominant in the Western Conference.
Maybe Trump was slighting both LeBron and Curry.