When Donald Trump defended his lewd comments detailing how he can sexually assault women because of his celebrity by saying they were just “locker room talk,” the response from athletes all over was resounding: No, it’s not. Now, the most famous athlete in America, LeBron James, has jumped in to expand on that.
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
We don’t disrespect women in no shape or fashion in our locker room. That never comes up. I got a mother-in-law, a wife, a mom and a daughter, and those conversations don’t go on in our locker room. What goes on in our locker room is sporting events that happened the night before, about family, about strategies that we may have that night… That’s what happens in our locker room. What that guy was saying, that’s not — I don’t know what that is. That’s trash talk.
We take LeBron’s interpretation of “trash talk” (trash, talk) to mean a trashy viewpoint , rather than the sort of smack talk that is exchanged on the court. LeBron is more comfortable than ever before taking a stand on political issues — he even endorsed Hillary Clinton for president — but you don’t have to take a Colin Kaepernick-like stand to denounce the horrendous language Trump used.