Donald Trump is not impressed with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship. The team defeated the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to claim their 17th title in team history. It’s was also James’ fourth championship in his career, but Trump went to Twitter to point out how ratings were down for the championship-clinching game.
In the tweet, the President shared an article by Breitbart that talks about ratings for the NBA Finals finale down 70% from last year. Trump wrote that the people in China could have been watching, but he doubts it. At the end of the tweet, Trump stated, “Zero interest!” It was reported 6.028 million people watched Game 6 of the NBA Finals. In 2019, 18.34 million fans were watching the Toronto Raptors take down the Golden State Warriors in Game 6, according to ClutchPoints.
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Viewership for NBA Finals Finale Crash Nearly 70%, Beaten by Random Sunday Night Football Game https://t.co/RaDVRSE4ww via @BreitbartNews Maybe they were watching in China, but I doubt it. Zero interest!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020
Trump believes ratings were down in the NBA this season because the players supported the Black Lives Matter movement. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA season was suspended in March and brought back in July, which meant the league was competing with the NFL regular season and the MLB playoffs. Because Game 6 of the NBA Finals fell on a Sunday, more fans were watching the NFL as it always draws more interest.
This quote is not the first time Trump has taken aim at the NBA. When the restart began at the Orlando bubble, Trump said he would stop watching because players were kneeling during the national anthem. “When I see people kneeling during the playing and disrespecting our flag and national anthem, what I do personally is turn off the game,” Trump said in the interview on Fox and Friends in August. “I think it’s disgraceful. We work with [the NBA], we worked with them very hard trying to get open. I was pushing for them to get open. Then I see everybody kneeling during the anthem. That’s not acceptable to me. When I see them kneeling during the game, I just turn off the game.”
Former President Barack Obama also reacted to the Lakers winning the title, which was different from what Trump had to say. “Congrats to the [Lakers] and [Seattle Storm] on their championship wins!” Obama wrote in the tweet. “Proud of all the NBA and WNBA teams and players who’ve been using their platforms to take a stand for racial justice and encourage civic participation this season.”
