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Bill O’Reilly on Twitter The anti-Laura Ingraham pile on continues and it’s absurd. If LeBron James wants to use his basketball platform for political punditry then he should expect criticism from analysts like Laura. If LeBron has the stronger argument, let it flow. But spare us the indignation, please.

Sports Illustrated reports that

LeBron James and Kevin Durant have both responded to comments made by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that were critical of the two for what they said about Donald Trump in a video with ESPN’s Cari Champion for the UNINTERRUPTED. After James said Trump “really don’t give a f— about the people,” Ingraham said James and Durant should “shut up and dribble” instead of discussing politics. When asked about the comments Saturday during All-Star media availability, James said he laughed at first when he initially heard of the comments and that Ingraham’s reaction proves what he has been saying about societal issues is correct. He added that he means “too much to society” and the youth to not use his platform in ways like this. In an interview with Sam Amick of USA Today Sports, Durant called Ingraham’s comments “racist” and “ignorant.” “It didn’t hit me,” Durant told Amick about his initial reaction to Ingraham’s comments. “Ignorance is something I try to ignore. That was definitely an ignorant comment. I do play basketball, but I am a civilian and I am a citizen of the United States, so my voice is just as loud as hers, I think – or even louder.” Durant also told Amick that he’s aware that if people like him and James speak up about their opinions on certain issues, Trump’s election has “made it cool for people to kind of speak their truth and kind of show what they’re really about” and “of course they’re going to say ignorant things like that.” James had previously posted a picture on Instagram with the caption “#wewillnotshutupanddribble.”

Hey, gentle readers, did any of you ask LeBron James and Kevin Durant, two Professional Basketball Players, what their professional opinions were about the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump?

Isn’t that like asking a 30-year-old dressed in Pokémon Pajama Bottoms in Walmart who is begging his 60-year-old mother to get him another video game to play in her basement about his work experience?

Please allow me to make a confession. It has been quite a few years since I was a serious NBA Fan. I’ve kept up from afar, just so I could engage in Water Cooler Talk at work. However, I enjoy college basketball nowadays infinitely more than I do the professional product.

I suppose that it is because of my rather youthful age of 59 and having grown up during some of the greatest times in the history of sports.

In the NBA, I can remember the Knicks, Celtics, Lakers, and Pistons playing hurt and leaving everything that they had out there on the court.

I am also a lifelong Memphis State/University of Memphis Tiger Basketball Fan.

There is a reason for that…

The year is 1972. A skinny, undersized asthmatic kid, new to Wooddale Junior High, in Memphis, Tennessee, is about to be annihilated in a game called Bombardment, a rather sadistic game thought up by the 9th grade P.E. coach for his personal amusement.

Resembling the movie “Dodgeball” on steroids, two teams (usually the delinquents on one side and their victims on the other), would line up against both sides of the bleachers waiting for the coach’s whistle. Then the massacre would ensue.

Sure that I was about to breathe my last, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a kind voice telling me to stand beside him. I looked up to see the smiling face of Larry Finch, Senior shooting guard on the Memphis State University Tigers Basketball Team. He had just taken an Internship at my school!

Of course, that was the school year that they lost the NCAA Championship to Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins. I don’t think that anyone in the nation hollered at their television set louder that night than I did.

Over the semester, we became friends. I became a Tiger fan for life, eventually receiving my degree there in 1980 in Radio, TV, and Film. While there, I had the privilege of calling radio play-by-play for the Women’s Basketball and Men’s Baseball teams.

Larry is also the reason that I went on to play and coach basketball, a 4th grade team and a church team, respectively. My coaching record is 25 – 4.

But, I digress…

The reason that I have drifted away from being a big fan of the NBA is that they have drifted away from me.

As an average American, living here in the Heartland, I still believe in Traditional American Values, such as Faith, Hard Work, Loyalty, Gratitude, and Respect.

The recent actions and words being seen and heard coming from the outrageously paid professional athletes of both the NFL and now, the NBA, are not the words and actions of “professionals”. Rather, they are the whining, screaming, and lashing out of cry-baby millionaires, who neither respect their fan base, nor those who have made their path to fame and fortune possible through the shedding of their blood for the flag and country which they are so intent on insulting and diminishing.

And now, these two “professionals” who are extravagantly paid for playing a game that you can watch being played in playgrounds and gymnasiums across the country are feeling insulted because they are being called out about their vulgar verbal attacks which they are making on President Trump simply because the fact that he IS our president OFFENDS them.

Well, listen up, you ungrateful overpaid pampered pu…err wussified excuses for professional athletes.

You cry-babies offend US!!!

By “us”, I am referring to average Americans just like me, who are out here killing ourselves in our 40-plus hour a week jobs, just to make it from paycheck-to-paycheck, including those of us who actually still attend your games, shell out our hard-earned cash, just to see you disrespect our president and, at times, sleepwalk your way through games on your way to collect your millions.

You misanthropic ungrateful jackanapes are not worthy to lace up the tennis shoes of those who have gone before you in your chosen field of athletic endeavor.

Those American Athletes knew whom they were playing for and who paid their salaries. And, they also had the sense to keep their mouths shut about the leader of the country in which they were able to have the freedom to have the job that they wanted and be paid handsomely for it. They also had the home-training and grace to go to the White House and meet the sitting president, if they were lucky enough to be a part of a team which won their league’s championship.

They knew that young boys followed their every word and action, idolizing them as sports heroes. And, the overwhelming majority of professional athletes back in the day, took that very seriously.

You guys do not seem to take anything seriously…except your own notoriety and your enormous paycheck.

So, Kevin, LeBron, and the rest of you “disenfranchised” millionaires…

Learn from the NFL…

Before you watch your popularity, the fans in the stands, and your undeserved paychecks dwindling before your eyes…just remember:

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)

If you keep running off at the mouth and commit mass seppuku as the NFL is in the process of doing…then perhaps Peyton Manning can get you a job with Papa John’s Pizza…delivering.

But hey…that’s the way the ball bounces.

So…

#SHUTUPANDDRIBBLE

Oh…and leave Laura Ingraham alone.

She is a waaay smarter than you guys.

Until He Comes,

KJ