Donald Trump says he won't extend White House invitation to NBA champions

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer
·3 min read
President Donald Trump was an NBA fan before he found out NBA players weren’t a fan of him. (Getty Images)
President Donald Trump was an NBA fan before he found out NBA players weren’t a fan of him. (Getty Images)

Once again, President Donald Trump won’t extend a White House invite to an NBA championship team that wouldn’t accept it anyway.

“We’re not going to invite either team,” Trump told reporters before leaving for the G7 summit in Canada on Friday morning.

This pointless exercise comes three days after Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James and Golden State Warriors counterpart Stephen Curry both publicly avowed neither team would attend if invited.

“I know no matter who wins this series,” James said, “no one wants to go anyway.”

“I agree with ‘Bron,” added Curry.

Donald Trump vs. professional sports

The subject first came up during off-day media availability between Finals games in Cleveland on Tuesday, the same day news broke that Trump disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from a planned Super Bowl celebration at the White House because too few players planned on attending.

“I’m blown away by the irony of the Eagles being disinvited,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters on Wednesday. “When you read about their good deeds in their communities — Malcolm Jenkins addressing lawmakers about really trying to get to the root of some of the issues we have — and instead, we just have these military sing-alongs at the White House to show how patriotic we are, even though we don’t know the words. It’s just incredible. It is incredible.”

The WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx never received an invitation to Trump’s White House. The team chose instead to commemorate its 2017 championship with a day of community service in Washington D.C.

Members of last year’s NHL champion Pittsburgh Penguins and Major League Baseball champion Houston Astros attended White House ceremonies over the past eight months. At least one member of the newly crowd NHL champion Washington Capitals has said he will not accept an invite from Trump.

“The things that he spews are straight-up racist and sexist,” Capitals winger Devante Smith-Pelly said.

Donald Trump vs. the NBA

Trump also disinvited the Warriors from a White House visit that was never planned following their NBA title victory last season, one day after Curry declared, “I don’t want to go.” A handful of players, including 2017 Finals MVP Kevin Durant, were also on record saying they would not attend if invited.

“I don’t respect who’s in office right now,” Durant said last year.

James has dubbed the president a “bum” who “doesn’t even care” about race relations. Curry has called Trump an asset without the “et.” Warriors coach Steve Kerr has described the president as “a blowhard” who “routinely used racist, misogynist, insulting words” and signed “horrible” immigration policy into law. Both James and Durant have accused the president of making racist remarks.

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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!