‘Slow news day at the office’: LeBron James shrugs off Trump’s national anthem attack

Read the original at The Guardian ↗
Cite

sport, G. (2026, October 23). ‘Slow news day at the office’: LeBron James shrugs off Trump’s national anthem attack. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/oct/23/lebron-james-donald-trump-national-anthem-76ers

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Guardian · collected 2026-10-23 · by Guardian sport

Quick Summary

Donald Trump criticized LeBron James on social media and at a campaign rally in Iowa for what he perceived as disrespectful behavior during the national anthem before an NBA game between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks. The criticism stemmed from a video showing James making warm-up movements while lined up with his teammates. In response, James dismissed Trump’s comments, saying it must be a "slow news day." Sixers coach Nick Nurse echoed this sentiment, advising players to focus on their game rather than external distractions.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-23, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

President Donald Trump accused LeBron James, an NBA star who recently joined the Philadelphia 76ers, of disrespecting the United States after video surfaced showing James appearing to warm up during the playing of the national anthem before Tuesday's season opener. In a social media post, Trump called James "a TOTAL DISGRACE" and urged him to apologize to those who died for the American flag. The incident is part of an ongoing feud between Trump and James, who have criticized each other publicly in the past. As of Thursday afternoon, James had not made any public response to Trump's criticism. Trump renewed his attack at a campaign rally in Iowa later that night, calling it "a big scandal kind of a story."

Written for “Trump Criticizes LeBron For Anthem Protest” on 2026-10-23, grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.35, but every quote it verified points right, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 100999: score contradicts its own evidence · logged 2026-10-23

Story

📰 Trump Criticizes LeBron For Anthem Protest
Politics · 4 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Toronto Star · 0.94 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 29 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe President Trump's reaction on social media to LeBron James' behavior during the national anthem at Philadelphia’s season opener, specifically mentioning the same date and context.”
South China Morning Post · 0.92 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans strongly right 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 5 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe US President Donald Trump's criticism of LeBron James for allegedly not standing still during the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers game on Tuesday, with Trump posting about it on social media on Thursday.”
Al Jazeera · 0.89 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 28 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles describe President Donald Trump's reaction to LeBron James' behavior during the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers game on Tuesday, as reported by Trump on social media on Thursday.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
69/100
The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
4
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-23 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Guardian · 1571 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Guardian sport
17 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
🔮 Others suggested the Falcons might need to change the NFL’s “End Racism” end-zone slogan to “Start Racism”, while one commenter offered a new billing for Sunday’s matchup: “49ers vs 39ers.”
🔮 In video of the incident, the crowd could be heard reacting when the officer fell to the field.
🔮 Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”
🔮 They’re going to cheer, they’re going to boo and sometimes they might point.
🔮 Tony Romo will not return as an NFL analyst for CBS Sports, the network announced Friday, after his July arrest for operating a vehicle while under the influence.
🔮 He had been predicted to be a top pick in this year’s NFL draft but chose to return to college.
🔮 REN TV said the group traveled down the river for four hours before an ambulance could locate them.
🔮 Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said she almost held Miles out Sunday against Connecticut and that the team would take the injury day by day as the playoffs approach.
🔮 New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart will be out for an extended period of time and could miss the rest of the NFL season after suffering a knee injury in Monday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams, according to reports Tuesday.
🔮 ESPN reports that the 32-year-old will not require surgery and hopes to return for the postseason.
Also by Guardian sport
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 17 articles by Guardian sport →

Topics

NBA Philadelphia Philadelphia 76ers Sixers the New York Knicks

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 8× James PERSON · 5× LeBron James PERSON · 3× NBA ORG · 3× Sixers ORG · 3× Philadelphia GPE · 2× American NORP · 1× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Philadelphia 76ers ORG · 1× the New York Knicks ORG · 1×

Narrative

Trump posted a video of the basketball legend making apparent warm-up movements while lined up with his Philadelphia 76ers teammates before their season opener against the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-23

Claims (20 extracted, 0 hedged)

Donald Trump lashed out at NBA superstar LeBron James on Thursday for what he called disrespectful behavior during the playing of the national anthem. asserted
he → lash → anthem
Trump posted a video of the basketball legend making apparent warm-up movements while lined up with his Philadelphia 76ers teammates before their season opener against the New York Knicks on Tuesday. asserted
legend → post → Tuesday
“While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country! asserted
James → listen → Country
I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a TOTAL DISGRACE,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network. asserted
Trump → say → network
“LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag, and all that our Country stands for!” he wrote. asserted
he → apologize → that
The video used by Trump had an on-screen caption that read: “LeBron working on his golf swing pregame.” asserted
LeBron → use → pregame
It showed him making lateral swinging motions and basketball shooting movements. asserted
him → show → motions
Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in Iowa on Thursday night, renewed the attack, calling James’s actions “a big scandal kind of a story”. asserted
Trump → speak → story
Trump and James have traded barbs before, and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer shrugged off the president’s latest criticism. asserted
scorer → trade → criticism
“It must be a slow news day at the office,” he said after the Sixers completed an epic comeback to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-106 in Philadelphia. asserted
Sixers → say → Philadelphia
James, 41, is entering a record-extending 24th NBA season with his fourth team. asserted
James → enter → team
Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Trump’s comments were the kind of distractions he was schooling his team to tune out. asserted
he → say → team
“I think that goes right in with other outside noise we’ve already had,” Nurse said. asserted
Nurse → think → noise
“I keep saying the same thing. asserted
I → keep → thing
All I really care about is getting to the practice floor, getting them in the film room, getting them to the game floor. asserted
I → care → floor
“The focus that they’ve had and the intent and all the stuff like that has been outstanding.” asserted
they → have → that
Philadelphia’s win on Thursday marked both the largest comeback by the Sixers in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97) and the largest comeback win of James’s career. asserted
win → mark → career
James finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals, while Tyrese Maxey powered the rally with 32 points and a crucial defensive effort on James Harden. asserted
Maxey → finish → Harden
Jaylen Brown, also making his home debut in a 76ers uniform, scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half and 10 in the fourth quarter. asserted
Brown → make → quarter
During his first term, Trump singled out NFL star Colin Kaepernick for his decision to kneel during the Star-Spangled Banner to protest against racial injustice and police brutality. asserted
Trump → single → injustice
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support