Tobias Harris found some humor in the escalating tensions.

The target was President Donald Trump rescinding the NBA champion Golden State Warriors’ White House invitation.

“I kind of relate it to you in the mall one day and a girl walking by you, and you like, ‘What’s up, girl?’ She looks back at you and she like, ‘I ain’t worried about you,’ and you go, ‘You ugly anyway,’ ” Harris said Monday at Detroit Pistons media day to guffawing reporters.

“It’s like one of those situations.”

Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency might have inflamed passions, but not much has changed since players answered questions last year about then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to protest police brutality and racial inequality by kneeling for the national anthem.

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The issue simmered below the surface, but erupted over the weekend.

Trump, in a series of escalating statements that began during a political rally in Huntsville, Ala., on Friday, advised fans to boycott NFL games until the teams “fire or suspend” any player who protests during the anthem — a gesture that other black players adopted last season along with Kaepernick.

Trump used inflammatory language at the Alabama rally.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired. He’s fired,’” Trump said.

And then the NBA was drawn in.

Golden State Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry said Friday he was against his team going to the White House for the customary congratulations from the president, prompting Trump to tweet the invitation was rescinded.

“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” the president wrote.

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But as Harris points out, the Warriors were never going to the White House when you consider Trump’s rhetoric.

Of course, the protests grew Sunday all across the NFL.

Critics say the protests disrespect the country’s military and law enforcement. Advocates point to high-profile cases of black men dying at the hands of law enforcement.

“The NFL players, they’re not going against the flag,” Harris said. “They’re bringing light to a situation that they believe that needs to be talked about and has been talked about.

For Trump to say those types of things and to tell the owners to take the SOBs off the field, it’s very disrespectful to them as players and their families, too.

“On top of that, it’s not right because they’re just like any other human individual in this world and they go out and play a sport,” Harris said. “It’s upsetting to see that type of thing like that be said from somebody on such a high pedestal as the president.”

What happens next?

After discussions with ownership, the Pistons agreed to lock arms during the anthem during the 2016-17 season, a widespread practice.

This year?

Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy and the players said they would meet to discuss their response this season.

“Unfortunately a lot of people are offended by (the protests), but a lot of people were offended by people sitting at the lunch counter in the civil rights movement,” Anthony Tolliver said. “A lot of people were offended by Rosa Parks sitting at the back of the bus or the front of the bus or anywhere on the bus.

“Sometimes being offensive isn’t necessarily the wrong thing. Sometimes it ends up being the right thing. That’s their decision to do that, and I respect it. I also respect the people who stand and I respect the opinions of all those guys. I’m not here to judge anybody or anything like that.”

Van Gundy was more measured than he was the day after Trump won the 2016 presidential election over Hillary Clinton, when he called him “openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic.”

He read a prepared statement about the weekend protests, but he didn’t back down from his thoughts on the players’ First Amendment rights: “No, no, we’re all compelled to talk as people of conscience.”

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Contact Vince Ellis: vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.

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