LeBron James and Donald Trump are trading shots again over what James did while the anthem played.

Trump wants an apology for the troops. James’ coach calls it outside noise.

And LeBron James answered the President with one smug line that his own history flatly contradicts.

LeBron James Waved Off the Commander-in-Chief After Beating Cleveland

The fuss started at the NBA season opener, when LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers squared off with the New York Knicks.

While the band played the national anthem, James swung his arms through a golf swing. Fans watching at home noticed. So did the President of the United States.

Trump went to Truth Social and wrote that James “disrespects our Country.” He didn’t stop with a scolding, either.

“LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag, and all that our Country stands for!” Trump wrote.

Philadelphia beat the Cleveland Cavaliers the following night. After the game, reporters asked James about Trump’s post, including the President’s point that he owed the country’s servicemen and women an apology.

James didn’t offer one.

“It’s a slow news day at the office, you know,” James said. “Slow news day in the office.”

That was the whole answer. Nothing for the families of the fallen. No explanation of why he treated the anthem like a trip to the driving range.

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse took the same approach. “I think that goes right in with other outside noise we’ve already had,” Nurse said. He added that the only thing he cares about is getting his players to the practice floor, the film room, and the game floor.

But something did change. Before the Cleveland game, James looked a whole lot less animated during the anthem than he had the night before.

Nobody in the Sixers’ locker room has said whether Trump’s post had anything to do with it.

The Man Bored by This Feud Wrote Most of It

Here’s what makes the “slow news day” crack so rich.

LeBron James built a good chunk of his off-court brand on Donald Trump. He endorsed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, and he never really stopped swinging after she lost.

In September 2017, Trump pulled the White House invitation for Golden State star Stephen Curry. James answered with a post calling the President a “bum” and saying a White House visit “was a great honor until you showed up.”

A few days later, at the Cavaliers’ preseason media day in Ohio, reporters asked if he regretted it. He said no. Then he spent the session refusing to say Trump’s name, calling him “that guy” over and over while lecturing that “the people run this country.”

That same week, James said he would sign Colin Kaepernick if he owned an NFL team. Kaepernick is the malcontent who kicked off the whole anthem-kneeling mess, turning the one moment that’s supposed to unite a stadium into a political stage. James wanted to hand him a contract.

And in June 2018, James was at it again. “Winning a Super Bowl or . . . an NBA championship . . . is way bigger than getting invited to the White House, especially with him in there,” he said.

But the clearest example came in August 2020, during the NBA’s pandemic restart. Trump told Fox News that seeing players kneel for the anthem was “disgraceful” and that he turns off the game when it happens.

James fired right back. “I really don’t think the basketball community are sad about losing his viewership, him viewing the game,” he said.

So for roughly a decade, LeBron James treated anything Trump said about athletes and the anthem as front-page material worth a press conference. Now the President talks about the anthem and suddenly it’s a slow news day.

Funny how the news only gets slow when somebody else is doing the talking.

Small towns all over this country have a fella like that. He writes letters to the editor about his neighbor’s fence for ten years straight, then acts bored the one time the neighbor writes back. Everybody at the diner knows exactly what’s going on.

Why a Superstar Doesn’t Get a Pass on the Anthem

James’ answer also pulled a quiet switcheroo. Trump’s complaint centered on the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who died under that flag. James made his reply about Trump.

But those men and women never posted anything on Truth Social. They never asked to be part of a basketball player’s feud with a President. Plenty of their widows and children still stand with a hand over the heart at Friday night football games every fall, and none of them think the anthem is a good time to work on a backswing.

And here’s the irony James probably hasn’t thought through. Back in 2017, he told reporters he wouldn’t kneel because his voice carried more weight than his knee. In other words, he understood that the anthem moment matters and that people watch what athletes do during it.

So he can’t really claim he didn’t know anybody was looking.

Maybe Trump’s post shamed him into toning it down the next night. That would be the simplest explanation. Then again, maybe his shoulder just hurt, or somebody in the front office had a word with him. Nobody outside that building knows, and James sure isn’t saying.

The NBA plays 82 regular-season games. The anthem plays before every one of them, and cameras catch everything.

That gives James plenty of chances to show what he really thinks about the flag. It also gives fans plenty of chances to keep score.

And the folks who quit watching NBA games years ago didn’t leave over a slow news day. They left because the biggest stars in the league kept treating that flag and that song like props in a political argument.

Slow news day or not, LeBron James found a quieter way to spend the next national anthem.

Sources: Breitbart, “LeBron James Fires Back at Trump Over Anthem Criticism” (Dylan Gwinn, October 23, 2026); CBS Sports, “LeBron speaks out on Trump and explains why he may not kneel during the anthem” (September 2017); Mother Jones, coverage of Cleveland Cavaliers media day (September 25, 2017); The42.ie, LeBron James on his “bum” comment (September 2017); The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH), “James talks Trump at media day” (September 26, 2017); Fox News, “Trump takes NFL, NBA to task about kneeling during national anthem”; Saskatoon StarPhoenix, “NBA rivals unite to trash Trump’s anthem stance” (June 6, 2018); People Daily via AFP, “LeBron brushes off Trump blast: ‘We could care less’” (August 7, 2020)