LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers with a VOTE shirts on prior to the start of a game against the Denver Nuggets.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Tuesday night’s presidential debate between incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden was at times a messy, interruption-filled TV event. The candidates sparred over how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, among other topics, as millions of Americans watched at home.
Current and retired professional athletes weighed in on social media; here’s what some of the more high profile athletes had to say.
Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry, who was one of several players to refuse to visit the White House when his team won the NBA championship in 2017 because of President Trump, was particularly moved when the president refused to denounce white supremacists. One of those groups, the Proud Boys, were told to “stand back and stand by” by President Trump.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who has sparred with President Trump on Twitter in the past, had a much more muted response during last night’s debate.
As of this morning, each of those tweets had over 200,000 “likes.”
On Chris Wallace
Many people were critical of the job debate moderator Chris Wallace, from Fox, did. Including former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling.
But Toronto Raptors star guard Kyle Lowry believes that Wallace acted like “an adult” last night and deserves some credit.
Slate.com counted the number of times President Trump interrupted Biden, and came up with 128. In response, some athletes said that the moderator should have a “mute” button, allowing him to cut the microphones of the candidates to limit interruptions.
This idea is used on ESPN’s widely popular show Around the Horn by moderator Tony Reali.
There has been some evidence that athletes who support President Trump have been far less vocal than they were in 2016. For example, one of Trump’s most famous athlete supporters back then was six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady, but he hasn’t posted anything on his social media accounts regarding the debate.
See also: Biden advantage? Here’s what market analysts are saying about a chaotic presidential debate
Brady has declined to specifically say whether or not he voted for Trump in the 2016 election, but has called him a “friend” and was seen with a red Make America Great Again hat in his locker when he was a quarterback with the New England Patriots.
See also: Mark Cuban picks up former NBA player Delonte West, helps him check into rehab facility
‘Vote’
One of the prevailing messages from athletes was a simple one: Vote.
That message was shared by Donovan Mitchell, a star on the NBA’s Utah Jazz, who has been outspoken in recent months about social justice issues surrounding how police treat people of color. Mitchell went to school at the University of Louisville, the city where Breonna Taylor lost her life.
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