Athletes, coaches take issue with Trump over ‘locker room talk’
NEW YORK (AP) — CJ McCollum, Jamal Crawford and Jacob Tamme are among current and former professional athletes on social media to criticize Donald Trump’s characterization of his predatory, sexual comments about women from a 2005 video as “locker room talk.”
Trump's campaign described his remarks as “locker room banter” in a statement Saturday, and the Republican presidential nominee repeated the line multiple times Sunday during the presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.
In the tape, obtained by The Washington Post and NBC News, Trump describes trying to have sex with a married woman and brags about women letting him kiss and grab them because he is famous.
“When you're a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
He adds seconds later, “Grab them by the p----. You can do anything.”
“I haven’t heard that one in any locker rooms,” McCollum wrote on Twitter in a response to a tweet from Crawford. McCollum plays for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and Crawford plays for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Tamme, a tight end with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, asked that Trump “please stop saying ‘locker room talk,’” adding that “it's not normal. And even if it were normal, it’s not right.”
Dodgers pitcher Brett Anderson, Chiefs wide receiver Chris Conley and retired NFL players Donte Stallworth and Chris Kluwe offered similar condemnations.
Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan declined to comment on Trump's specific comments but said that people should be held accountable for what they say or do, according to Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript.
“I don't wanna comment on that just because for me, I think a lot of those things are very unfortunate, the things that we're discussing and talking about from both parties,” Donovan said. “For women, for what went on there. But I'm not gonna pass judgment on what goes on in our locker room or what goes on in any other locker room. I think every person's got to be accountable for themselves. Certainly, it's disappointing when you hear things like that, but for me, as a coach, I think what goes on in our guys' locker room, that's their private place. I haven't heard anything like that from our guys, and again, I'm not in there all the time, but I think that I would be foolish to try to jump in and start giving my thoughts and opinion of what's appropriate or not appropriate inside of the locker room. And like I said, I think everybody's got to be accountable for what they say or what they do, and that's really all I could say on that.”
