LeBron James was very vocal when the 2017 champion Warriors were uninvited to a possible trip to the White House by Trump. A three-time Finals MVP, James described Trump’s rescinding of an invite to the Eagles as “typical of him.”
“As long as he’s in office, then the communication and things like that are going to continue to happen,” James said about Trump. “It’s a lot of things that we believe in as Americans that we don’t feel that he’s for. There are a lot of people that believe that he’s not for the people or doing things that’s right by the people. So, it’s not surprising hearing the news today with the Eagles. But I think more importantly, as Americans and especially people in Philadelphia, we shouldn’t let that news take away from what that unbelievable team did and accomplished, what all those players did to sacrifice throughout each and every Sunday, going out and playing the style of football that they played and winning a Super Bowl the way they won it.
“Let’s not let that accomplishment of things that you will have for the rest of your life, and people will always call you a champion for the rest of your life, let’s not let someone uninviting you to their house take away from that moment,” he continued. “Because I think the championship — winning a Super Bowl or winning a Stanley Cup or winning a World Series or winning an NBA championship or national championship — is way bigger than getting invited to the White House, especially with him in there, in my opinion.”
Stephen Curry said on Sept. 22 during the Warriors’ media day that hopefully the champions could “inspire change” by not going to the White House to celebrate their title. Curry and the Warriors did go to the White House to celebrate their 2015 NBA championship. On Sept. 23, Curry woke up to the laughter of his wife, Ayesha, who revealed to him Trump’s announcement on Twitter that the Warriors’ offer to visit the White House was rescinded because “Stephen Curry is hesitating.”
Curry agreed with James that the Warriors will not visit the White House if they are champions again. Curry sounded proud of the Eagles players who decided not to go to the White House.
“I decided to speak out on me not wanting to go to the White House last year. And every team that has won a championship since then has gone through that,” Curry said. “So many people want to chime in. … How, I guess, social media is used today, the conversation can get out of control with so many different voices. I know a guy from the Eagles, wide receiver who played on the Super Bowl-winning team last year, and he broke it down pretty verbatim of how his process went with his discussions with his teammates and how he wanted to keep the focus on what the conversation should be and not the anthem and not Trump’s policies and how he’s been overshadowing the NFL and all that type of stuff.
“So, that’s refreshing that he’s educating people along the way. I think that’s important. If you focus on who is saying the right things, you shouldn’t get lost in the noise that’s going on right now.”
Golden State’s Kevin Durant said he agrees with James and Curry.
“What else do you expect Trump to do? When somebody says they don’t want to come to the White House, he disinvites them so the photo op don’t look bad,” Durant said. “We get it at this point. It’s good that guys are sticking to what they believe in and what they want to do. Like guys said before me, I’m sure whoever wins this series won’t be going.”
Obviously no one wants an invite to the White House, and if you do get the invite, and turn it down, most likely that very invite would be rescinded. I miss Obama, it was a lot less complicated for teams to visit the White House.
