Durant on Fox News host's LeBron tirade: 'It was racist'

Fox News host Laura Ingraham's verbal takedown of LeBron James over his critical remarks of President Donald Trump has struck a nerve with many. At All-Star media availability Friday in Los Angeles, Kevin Durant chimed in, saying that Ingraham's attack had clear racial undertones.

"To me, it was racist," Durant said, according to USA TODAY's Sam Amick, in regards to the Thursday segment on "The Ingraham Angle."

In it, the host took issue with an "Uninterrupted" video in which LeBron and Durant discuss current events in a vehicle with Cari Champion as their Uber driver. James remarked in the video that Trump "don't give a f--- about the people," and that his penchant for political incorrectness is "laughable and it's scary."

In Ingraham's responding tirade, she said: "This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA," referring to James' unsuccessful petition to become draft eligible after his junior year of high school in 2002.

"It's always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million to bounce a ball," she added. "Keep the political commentary to yourself, or as someone once said, shut up and dribble."

Durant, who said in the "Uninterrupted" video that the United States "is not run by a great coach," added Friday that Trump's outright courting of extremism has given oxygen to hate groups and those who seek to shut down dissension.

"Like I said, our President made it cool for people to kind of speak their truth and kind of show what they're really about. It’s cool to uncover that now. So we know it’s coming," Durant said. "But we are the American dream. We come from nothing. We rose up in our profession to be able to take care of our families forever. I think everybody in the country would want to do that, so I think more people want to be us than - I don’t even know her name, whoever that lady is."

James responded to the controversy Friday with an Instagram picture of himself enjoying life. He later replied directly to Amick's tweet with the hashtag "wewillnotshutupanddribble" - posting the same on Instagram.