Draymond Green: Skipping White House visit not about Trump, but 'about what we stand for'

Ryan Young
·Staff writer
Draymond Green said the Warriors would not visit the White House if they had the chance to do it over, as following that status quo wouldn’t effect any real change in the country. (Getty Images)
Draymond Green said the Warriors would not visit the White House if they had the chance to do it over, as following that status quo wouldn’t effect any real change in the country. (Getty Images)

The Golden State Warriors, fresh off their third NBA title in four seasons, once again skipped the customary visit to the White House to be honored for their championship win.

Many assumed it had to do with not wanting to see president Donald Trump, who many in the NBA and Golden State coach Steve Kerr have criticized and openly opposed about in the past.

Warriors forward Draymond Green, though, said it isn’t that simple. While speaking with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “Cuomo Prime Time” on Monday night, Green was asked if the team would still skip the visit to Washington D.C. if they could do it over.

While Green said confidently that the Warriors would still skip the trip, he shed some light as to why they opted to skip the visit in the first place.

“I know we would make the same decision to not go,” Green said on CNN. “It’s not about not seeing Donald Trump or anything else that goes with it, but more so about what we stand for. In order to effect change, you have to stand for something. If you go about it the same way, you do the same things you do if everything is normal, then you won’t effect change.”

The Warriors aren’t the only team to skip the visit to the White House in recent years — or even recent months.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ visit after winning the Super Bowl was cancelled after most of the team announced they would not be attending. Many of the athletes from the United States Olympic team skipped the visit after the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, earlier this year. And the Minnesota Lynx, who won another WNBA championship last season, didn’t even receive an invitation — which LeBron James called “laughable.”

James and Warriors star Steph Curry even made it clear during the NBA Finals that neither team would visit the White House, no matter who won.

Yet Green’s reasoning behind the Warriors skipping the visit isn’t one out of hatred of a president or his administration that they don’t agree with, but rather using their platform as professional athletes and celebrities constructively.

“Our goal is to effect some change and use our platform to do that,” Green said on CNN. “That’s why we opted not to go to the White House, because it would just be status quo if we did, and then how does your voice even matter?”

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