A number of former North Carolina basketball players are speaking out after Eric Trump, the middle son of President Donald Trump, posted a doctored video Wednesday in which Donald Trump's head was replaced with Roy Williams's in a scene from 2016 when the Hall of Fame coach was celebrating with his team in the locker room.
UNC filed a complaint about the video through Twitter, which has since removed the video after it determined it violated the social media website's copyright policies. The tweet still remains but now shows a message that reads: "Content is not available."
A spokesperson for North Carolina said in a statement to the News & Observer that the men's basketball program was "profoundly disappointed" by the doctored video. In it, several former Tar Heels players were wearing 'Make America Great Again' red hats. Here are the details from the News & Observer:
In the edited clip, a reference to the Republican National Convention, which concludes Thursday night, Trump's head is on Williams' body. Other prominent conservative figures, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, commentator Terrence K. Williams and rapper Kanye West (who's running for president as an independent), are edited into the video. And some UNC players, such as 2017 ACC Player of the Year Justin Jackson, have red "Make America Great Again" hats edited onto their heads.
"We are profoundly disappointed that political messaging would be made using video without permission that shows our players, coach and uniforms from inside our team's locker room celebration," said UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner, who added that the program is in complete support of the Milwaukee Bucks and their decision on Wednesday to boycott Game 5 of the NBA playoffs after the shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, earlier this week.
Ex-UNC national champion Justin Watts weighed in shortly after Eric Trump posted the video, imploring him to "take this BS photoshopped video elsewhere." Theo Pinson, Kenny Williams and Brandon Robinson also responded to the video. Kennedy Meeks, meanwhile, issued perhaps the most direct response: "Hell no," he said. "This ass!" which included several emojis.
Roy Williams has been an outspoken critic of president Trump since winning the 2016 election. In 2017 he denounced his use of Twitter in particular, saying, "You know, our president tweets more bull**** than anybody I've ever seen."
After winning the NCAA championship in 2017, Williams and his UNC team never visited the White House, as is customary for national champions.
