Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations, Magic Johnson, spoke with The Undefeated's Marc Spears during the Lakers' Media Day session on Monday and, like many others, he addressed issues regarding President Trump.
Magic questioned why President Trump singled out certain NFL and NBA players, including Stephen Curry who recently said he would vote "no" if invited to the White House in honor of the Warriors' NBA championship. Trump has since "uninvited" the entire Warriors team due to Steph's comments.
The Lakers legend also spoke about how proud he was of Curry and LeBron James in the wake of Trump's comments, not only pertaining to the White House visit but of the NFL protests as well.
Magic told The Undefeated,
“Why are you singling out the NBA and the NFL? For what?” Johnson asked The Undefeated. “Stephen Curry can say if he wants to come to the White House or not. Nobody said anything when Tom Brady said he wasn’t going when President Obama was sitting there. And now all the sudden Stephen Curry doesn’t want to go and he makes it a big deal? I think that’s wrong. And it’s the same thing with the NFL players who decide to kneel or sit on the bench. That’s their right. I was happy that the owners and coaches backed the players. So, it was really good.”
“I was really proud of them. I was very happy. I can’t say a lot because now people are saying, ‘Oh, Magic is trying to recruit everybody.… ’ But I am proud of them for standing for something.”
“We’ve all got to stand for something. They’ve also got to have each other’s back. After [the news broke] on Saturday, I tweeted out that I’m supporting Golden State and I’m supporting the players because it’s important that we have each other’s back.”
Magic added the following in regards to President Trump's most recent twitter tirade.
“I took it as a president, who first of all, is overstepping his stage,” Magic said.
“Stay focused on North Korea, job creation, what this country needs. You can’t take away, whether it’s a player or an individual, freedom of speech. And you have to be in touch with why everybody is protesting. He doesn’t understand that equality, diversity and inclusion is so important. And the fact that there are issues in urban America, which I’ve been dealing with for 30 years, that is going on in our schools, our community and our neighborhood.
“Guys stepped up and said different things. This is a sensitive situation. Racism is back strong in our country, unfortunately. One thing that is great about sports is that it brings all colors of people together. You have to remember that guys are playing with different races of guys.”
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