Washington: US President Donald Trump and the sports world engaged in an intensifying spat on Saturday after he called for National Football League owners to fire players who protest during the US national anthem and disinvited a National Basketball Association star from a White House visit.
Responding to Trump’s attacks on football players who protested during the national anthem, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said on Saturday that Trump’s statements revealed “unfortunate lack of respect” for the NFL and its players. Goodell’s statement was released a day after Trump suggested any protesting football player was a “son of a bitch” and should lose his job.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of abitch off the field right now... He is fired’,” Trump said on Friday at a rally in in Alabama where he urged fans to boycott the NFL games.
Later on Saturday, Trump said in Twitter messages, that if NFL players wanted “the privilege” of high salaries they “should stand for the national anthem. If not, YOU'RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Ka- Stevie Wonder (L) takes a knee ‘for the country’ with his son Kwame Morris before performing at the 2017 Global Citizen Festival on Saturday. The festival aims to end extreme poverty. Wonder took the stage and knelt, emulating a gesture popularised by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick during the national anthem to denounce racial injustice epernick stirred a polarising national debate in 2016 after refusing to stand during pregame renditions of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ to protest police violence against African-Americans. Several players have made similar gestures of protest since Kaepernick initiated his protest.
NBA players also struck back against comments by the president on Saturday. In an early morning Twitter message on Saturday, the president rescinded a White House invitation to basketball star Stephen Curry, who had said he would “vote” against the planned visit by the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
Trump said “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” Trump tweeted. It’s beneath the leader of a country to go that route,” said Curry in a news conference. “It’s not what leaders do.”
The Oakland-based Golden State Warriors said in a statement: “We accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited.”
LeBron James came to Curry’s defense, disputing Trump’s assertion that visiting White House was an honor. “Going to WH was a great honour until you showed up!” James, a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential elections, said on Twitter.
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