Under Armour could have lost one of its most popular clients hours after CEO Kevin Plank sang Donald Trump’s praises.
Stephen Curry, who has built a strong partnership with the sports-retail brand over the years since he ditched Nike in 2013, heard Plank call Trump an “asset” for supporting American businesses in an interview with CNBC Tuesday. So Curry trimmed a few letters to fit his beliefs.
“I agree with that description,” Curry told Mercury News, “if you remove the ‘-et’ from asset.”
Curry, who quietly supported Hillary Clinton in the election, opened up on Wednesday about the frantic aftermath of Plank’s controversial comments.
“I spent all day yesterday on the phone with countless people at Under Armour, countless people in Kevin Plank’s camp, my team, trying to understand what was going on and where everybody stood on the issue,” the Warriors star guard said. “Based off the release that KP sent out this morning, and what he told me last night, that’s the Under Armour that I know. That’s the brand I know he’s built and one that, as of Wednesday afternoon, is something that I’m standing on.”
Sensing — and hearing — Curry’s frustration with the CEO’s political stance, Under Armour executives worked quickly, releasing a statement Wednesday in an attempt to save face, explaining Plank’s motivation behind joining a team of businessmen per Trump’s request.
“He joined CEOs from companies such as Dow Chemical, Dell, Ford, GE and Tesla, among others to begin an important dialogue around creating jobs in America,” the statement read. “We believe it is important for Under Armour to be a part of that discussion.”
Plank also reached out to Curry separately, arguing his pro-Trump remarks were business-related and did not align him with the president’s social and political values. The two-time NBA MVP believed Plank’s interpretation, but suggested that if he felt Under Armour were straying from beliefs that didn’t match his, he would have no problem kicking his longtime partner to the curb.
“If there is a situation where I can look at myself in the mirror and say they don’t have my best intentions, they don’t have the right attitude about taking care of people,” Curry said. “If I can say the leadership is not in line with my core values, then there is no amount of money, there is no platform I wouldn’t jump off if it wasn’t in line with who I am. So that’s a decision I will make every single day when I wake up. If something is not in line with what I’m about, then, yeah, I definitely need to take a stance in that respect.”
Though he didn’t go as far as his Cavaliers rival LeBron James, who on Wednesday condemned Trump’s immigration ban as a policy that “divides and excludes people” in a country that champions diversity, Curry, typically more safe in his political proclamations, reaffirmed he did not vote for Trump.
“I feel like if you know who I am, you know what I stand for, and I can live with that,” Curry said. “I feel when you see my name, when you see people wearing my stuff, when you see anybody attached to me, that they share that same passion for people that I do. And that’s what I’ve been really serious about using this platform to share. I don’t get in people’s faces and out in the streets with a bullhorn doing it that way. But every opportunity I have to show love, to show respect, to show just that positivity, I feel like that’s my job and that’s what I stand for.”
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