LeBron James officially endorsed Vice President Joe Biden for president and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris on Monday night, shortly after the Los Angeles Lakers’ star was criticized by President Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The newly crowned NBA Champion took to Instagram the night before the 2020 presidential election to encourage his 74.1 million followers to vote for Biden.
‘LEBRON JAMES SUCKS’ CHANTS BREAK OUT AT TRUMP RALLY IN PENNSYLVANIA
“One more day. Please [vote]!!” his caption read. “We need EVERYTHING to change and it all starts tomorrow.”
James has been an outspoken critic of Trump and, while he launched the More Than a Vote campaign this year, the NBA star had yet to implicitly endorse the Democratic ticket until Monday. He previously stumped for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and had expressed support for the Biden/Harris ticket.
The announcement came shortly after Trump addressed a crowd of supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania.
LEBRON JAMES UNINTERESTED IN TRUMP SPAT: 'I DAMN SURE WON’T GO BACK AND FORTH WITH THAT GUY'
“How about basketball? How about LeBron? I felt badly for LeBron. I felt very badly. Down 71% and that's for their championship -- I didn't want to watch one shot,” Trump said, mentioning the NBA’s historically low championship ratings.
“When they don't respect our country, when they don't respect our flag, nobody wants to watch. Nobody!” he continued.
The crowd quickly broke out in “LeBron James sucks” chants.
Trump has been critical of James and his political stance -- just last month, in the midst of the NBA finals, he said: “LeBron is a spokesman for the Democratic Party and a very nasty spokesman.”
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“He's a great basketball player, but people don't want to see a guy that way," the president continued."They don't want to see that. We have enough difficulty during the week, you don't wanna sit down watching a basketball game and then watch somebody that hates your guts, OK? He's a hater."
James never addressed Trump’s remarks directly, but later told The New York Times, “I don’t go back and forth with anybody. And I damn sure won’t go back and forth with that guy.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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