Chuck Burton/Associated Press Basketball legend Michael Jordan voiced his support for LeBron James on Saturday after President Donald Trump posted a critical tweet regarding the Los Angeles Lakers superstar. According to Geoff Bennett of NBC News, Jordan released a statement through a spokesperson that read, "I support LJ. He's doing an amazing job for his community." On Friday night, Trump questioned James' intelligence and suggested he preferred Jordan: Jordan was the latest in a long line of current and former NBA players to rush to LeBron's defense. Trump's comments came on the heels of an interview CNN's Don Lemon conducted with James on Monday. James spoke negatively about Trump in the interview and expressed his belief that the president has been divisive: "What I've noticed over the past few months, he's kinda used sports to kinda divide us, and that's something that I can't relate to." LeBron also discussed his I Promise School in the interview, which will provide at-risk children with education in his native Akron, Ohio. James and Trump have been at odds since last year, when LeBron subtweeted Trump after the president rescinded the 2016-17 NBA champion Golden State Warriors' invitation to the White House: Video Play Button Videos you might like Jordan's public support for James means arguably the two greatest players in NBA history are putting up a united front. LeBron is preparing for a new start in L.A., and the three-time NBA champion will look to whittle away the 6-3 championship advantage His Airness currently holds.<doc-sep>On Friday, Donald Trump tweeted about LeBron James, which was nothing new. But this time he compared him to Michael Jordan, which apparently never gets old. Given his age and penchant for identifying losers, Trump could've invoked Jordan's name because he's a more familiar face and decorated winner. Or, maybe he simply deemed him a more respectable black man. Of course, all of the above is still an option. On Saturday, Jordan responded, via spokeswoman. Choosing not to engage the president or even unravel his comments, Jordan made a simple statement. "I support L.J. He's doing an amazing job for his community." Yet for a lot of people, this was too simple. To them, the statement was consistent with the apolitical messaging he's delivered for decades, at a time when choosing sides means more than ever. Just like that, Trump was no longer the only target. The oldest of Jordan memes had resurfaced: the empty suit, the sellout, the private prison investor. The latest game of an endless series between—or more accurately, about—LeBron and Jordan had begun. This time it was personal. Jordan was widely criticized throughout his playing career for a perceived lack of interest in social issues by both activists and athletes, including one of his own teammates. All of their disdain is encapsulated in a tidy and reliable quote: "Republicans buy sneakers too." The quote itself is third-hand, thirty years old, and something Jordan himself has denied saying. But when considered alongside his silence or inaction on other matters—from rioting in Los Angeles and the NBA's lack of black coaches, to children murdering for his signature sneakers and other children in sweatshops manufacturing them—the image of a soulless capitalist became easier to project. Especially when combined with the ruthlessness he displayed on court. This is in contrast with LeBron, who has worn a hoodie in solemn remembrance of Trayvon Martin, an "I Can't Breathe" shirt in posthumous defense of Eric Garner, and of course, most recently called the president a bum. Silent, he is not. But his most substantive and lasting contribution to social justice will undoubtedly be the I Promise school, which opened this week to much deserved applause. Jordan hadn't just lost this one in a blowout; he'd been booed off the court of public opinion years before the game even started. As long as there's been skin and money, there's been something uglier, more odious, about a soulless black capitalist. Fair or not, it suggests an abandonment not only of principles, but the people and lessons of what were almost assuredly more humble beginnings. If these deserters are entertainers, the desertion becomes downright nefarious. Because when a black person amasses great wealth and fame by making white people smile while ignoring their people's pleas…. Well, America is familiar with such a man, who can also be summed up in a tidy quote, "I'm not black, I'm O.J." For some, it might be easy to conflate the two. M.J. was compared to players of old; Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the greatest, Muhammad Ali, who used their voices to push attention towards civil rights in a time when they were more likely to be ignored. These were O.J. 's contemporaries. He was compared to them first. He also, for a time, was more successful than them all. Except Jordan, of course, whose platform was even bigger. As were the checks. Which unfortunately creates an illusion of choice, between principle and profits. Because they both stayed quiet.<doc-sep>
Put aside "the greatest basketball player of all time" debate for now. In the wake of President Donald Trump's disparaging Twitter comments on LeBron James' interview with CNN's Don Lemon, basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan expressed his backing of the Los Angeles Lakers forward who has become a viable threat to Jordan in the "greatest" debate among basketball pundits. "I support L.J.," Jordan told NBC News through his spokesperson on Saturday. "He's doing an amazing job for his community." Jordan, who casually stayed out of politics during his heyday in the 1990s — he was attributed in the 1995 book Second Coming with the quote, "Republicans buy shoes, too" in explaining his lack of a political agenda — didn't offer any political perspective in his statement. Trump had ended his tweet on Friday by saying, "I like Mike!" in an apparent reference to Jordan over James as a basketball player. Jordan previously supported NFL players who chose to kneel in protest during the national anthem when Trump was publicly condemning them for what he perceived as disrespecting the American flag. More:Trump's tweet about LeBron James is pathetic More:LeBron should ramp up his own rhetoric to fire back at Trump "Those who exercise the right to peacefully express themselves should not be demonized or ostracized," Jordan said last September, without directly addressing Trump. "At a time of increasing divisiveness and hate in this country, we should be looking for ways to work together and support each other and not create more division." James expressed similar sentiments while addressing Trump head on in his CNN interview with Lemon on Monday, which came after he cut the ribbon on his foundation's new I Promise School in his native Akron, Ohio. In the CNN interview, James said Trump has been "using sports to kind of divide us, and that's something that I can't relate to." "Sports has never been something that divides people. It’s always been something that brings someone together," James said.