Aaron Rodgers Shows Support For LeBron James, Advises To Ignore Donald Trump
Aaron Rodgers has not been very outspoken about his thoughts on today’s politics, although he did join in linking arms amid the protests of the national anthem last season. Now, he has opened up a bit about his thoughts on Donald Trump attacking LeBron James.
Trump took aim at James after he did an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon. He angered the sports world after insinuating that James was “dumb.”
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”
Since the comments, Michael Jordan, who was referred by Trump as “Mike,” has also issued a statement in support of James. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also stated his support for James.
Rodgers, coming in from the league that Trump attacked in a big way last year, showed his support for James in an interview shared by Yahoo! Sports. He suggested that James should simply ignore Trump.
“At a time where he’s putting on display his school, which is changing lives, there’s no need. Because you’re just giving attention to that [tweet]; that’s what they want. So just don’t respond. He has stood on his own two feet for years, and he has done some incredible things, and he needs no support He knows he has the support of his contemporaries, in his own sport and in other sports, and he’s gonna be fine.'”
Aaron Rodgers weighs in on the protests. (via this great interview with @MikeSilver https://t.co/ZXmIGs482X) pic.twitter.com/Qh9USgPvV9
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) August 7, 2018
Following that statement, he went on to tell NFL players to follow the same advice and ignore the president of the United States in his rants against professional athletes.
“I think that the more that we give credence to stuff like that, the more it’s gonna live on. I think if we can learn to ignore or not respond to stuff like that — if we can — it takes away the power of statements like that.”
Rodgers joins a long list of famous athletes and celebrities who are beginning to avoid responding to Trump’s criticism. The NFL has received the brunt of Trump’s Twitter rants about players kneeling for the national anthem. He went so far as to say that players should be released from their respective teams if they kneel for the anthem.
No matter the stance that someone takes on the issue, division between people in the United States is not the answer. James said as much in his interview with Lemon.
All of that being said, it appears that athletes are beginning to come together in unison and are trying to focus on not retaliating to comments and moving on without allowing them to create drama.
