Ron Harper Says 'Phil Jackson Is No Racist'

Ron Harper is coming out strong in defense of his ex-Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson -- saying straight-up, "He's no racist" ... despite comments made by LeBron James.

Phil's been under fire this week -- ever since LeBron slammed Jackson for describing his close business associates as a "posse."

LeBron says he was offended by the term -- claiming it was used in a derogatory manner toward a group of African-Americans.

We reached out to Harper -- who played under Jackson with the Bulls and Lakers from 1994 to 2001 -- and he sent us a statement on the situation. Here it is in its entirety:

"Don't want no part of this story it's dumb and stupid. Phil is no racist and back when Phil coached, we all call them the p word."

"I respect LBJ and that's how he feel I'm sorry pj is great. The world needs to stop taking words out of context. Everything about life is not a white and black thing. We're one race and that's a human race and if we let dumb people's put us into a box and then no one would survive."

"This is not an excuse for what Phil said or down playing the story but to me it's a no story."