Trump says Bobby Knight to speak at convention, floats Don King

Donald Trump on Wednesday said famed basketball coach Bobby Knight will speak at the Republican National Convention and that he hopes to get boxing promoter Don King a slot, as well. 

{mosads}”Bobby Knight will be speaking at the convention. We have so many people — we have such a great convention plan,” Trump said at a rally in Cincinnati Wednesday night.

And Trump said he had spoken to King about also having a speaking slot.

“You know who I just spoke to? Big Don King, big Don King,” he said. “Big Don, greatest boxing promoter of all time.

“I said, ‘Don, I’d love you to speak at the convention, because you know what? You’ve beat the system.’ And he’s a friend of mine.”

{mosads}Trump then brought up an article in King’s newspaper calling for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to become his running mate.

“You know what Don King did?” he asked. “He owns a newspaper. He endorsed Donald Trump for president, Bernie Sanders for vice president.”

“How do you like that?” asked Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. “He put a big ad in his newspaper. That’s a new one, that’s a new one.”

King published an op-ed in May calling for Trump to add Sanders to his ticket.

“Keep in mind that by the ‘will’ of the people this ticket is undeniably, truly, the will of the American people,” he said in the May 10 article for The Call & Post, his Ohio-based publication.

“Both candidates are outsiders, fighting against the status quo, the establishment and the corrupt system in order to serve and secure the will of the American people. The American people, by popular acclaim, nominated Donald J. Trump for president and Senator Bernie Sanders for vice president.”

But King has said as recently as mid-June that he hasn’t endorsed anyone. 

Trump has floated getting sports stars to be speakers at the convention over speeches from politicians, as is typical.