After the Cleveland Cavaliers practice Wednesday, reporters caught up with LeBron James to ask what he thought about Donald Trump’s “locker room talk.”
LeBron on Donald Trump: “That’s not locker room talk. That’s trash talk.” pic.twitter.com/3optkXraM3
— Hayden Grove (@H_Grove) October 12, 2016
The reporters were referring to the lewd comments Trump was recorded saying on a hot mic back in 2005 that became public Friday. The presidential nominee has since apologized for his language on the recording and referred to it as locker room talk — a description athletes and coaches have taken quite literally.
“What is locker room talk to me? It’s not what that guy said,” James said referring to Trump. The NBA MVP said he and his teammates are more likely to talk about a alley-oop dunk from the night before or a “home run in the bottom of the ninth” in their locker room.
“That’s what happens in our locker room,” James said, “but what that guy was saying, that’s not, I don’t know what that is. That’s trash talk.” (RELATED: LeBron James Reveals Who He’s Endorsing For President)
James is not a big fan of trash talk in the locker room or on the court, despite the fact that he plays a sport in which trash talk seems to be part of the game. “I say everything to LeBron,” Kobe Bryant said in an interview back in 2013. “He says nothing back. He just laughs. There’s no banter back and forth.”
Draymond Green, LeBron James (Credit: Getty Images/Ronald Martinez)
LeBron did get involved in a little trash talk in this year’s NBA Finals, though. The Cavs superstar got into it with Draymond Green, who reportedly called LeBron a “bitch.” The exchange resulted in Green serving a one-game suspension.
James also did some trash talking of his own in the Finals series. He and Golden State star Stephen Curry mouthed offed to one another several times throughout the 2016 Finals.
LeBron James announced his endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President early last week.