The controversy's heating up and, as usual, President Donald Trump just can't help but light the fire and continue to stoke it ...

After the leader of the free world "uninvited" Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry from visiting the White House, Curry's fellow NBA'er LeBron James took to Twitter in his defense, calling the prez a "bum."

So here's what happened, in case you've been living under a rock the past few days or just consumed with Kylie Jenner pregnancy news (as we have been) ... Curry said on Friday that he didn't want to visit the President's residence with members of his team, something NBA champs have traditionally done in the past. "I don't really want to go; that's really it," Curry said at a Warriors press conference. That prompted Trump to take his anger to Twitter, writing, "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!" (Trump didn't put spaces after his punctuation, but we'll assuming he was typing on his phone with his thumbs ...)

Trump's snub inflamed fans and fellow players including Cleveland Cavaliers player LeBron James, who Tweeted: "U bum, @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!" Burrrrn!

#UBum is now a hashtag, LeBron's message has been re-Tweeted more than half a million times and liked almost 1.5 million times.

This all started with Colin Kaepernick, of course -- the current NFL free agent is knows for taking a stand by taking a knee during the national anthem. The former 49er's star caused controversy and eventually got fired for not standing during the national anthem before games. He said he was representing the oppression of African-Americans and minorities in the U.S. The NFL said, we don't like it. Other players in the league have joined in Kaepernick's form of passive protest, as have some NBA and even an NBL player.

Trump addressed these protests during a rally in Alabama on Friday saying, "Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you’d say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired." NFL commissioner Roger Goodell condemned the President's comments, writing in a statement: "Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities."

Again, Trump wouldn't let it go ... Tweeting Saturday: "If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU'RE FIRED. Find something else to do!"

The Warriors then issued a team statement, confirming NONE of the players would visit the White House: "While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited. We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them. We’re disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise. In lieu of a visit to the White House, we have decided that we’ll constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion — the values that we embrace as an organization."

Curry commented on the decision by saying, "By acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country, what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye toward. It’s not just the act of not going, there are things you have to do in the back end that you have to push that message into motion."