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After a war of words between Stephen Curry and President Donald Trump, it looks like the Golden State Warriors won’t be visiting the White House to celebrate their championship despite what the NBA commissioner and the Warriors head coach wanted.
As of Thursday, no invitation had been extended to the Warriors to visit the White House and no decision had been made by the team. But then, on Friday, Curry said he did not want to visit the White House, and on Saturday, Trump announced during a tweet storm that the invitation was being “withdrawn” because Curry was “hesitating.”
Later on Saturday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver released a statement saying he had hoped the Warriors would visit the White House because of the potential positive impact it could have had.
“I was in favor of the team visiting the White House and thought it was a rare opportunity for these players to share their views directly with the President,” Silver said. “I am disappointed that that will not happen. More importantly, I am proud of our players for taking an active role in their communities and continuing to speak out on critically important issues.”
This echoed a similar sentiment made by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr in June.
As a guest on “The TK Show,” a podcast hosted by Tim Kawakami of The Mercury News. Kerr sounded open to the idea of going and said he wanted the players to consider it out of respect and because it could send a positive message.
“I do think it is very important to consider a potential invitation because I think it could have really positive ramifications if we did go. It’s a different way to look at it. I, like many of our players, am very offended by some of Trump’s words and actions. On the other hand, I do think there’s something to respecting the office, respecting our institutions, our government. And I think it can make a statement in a time when there is so much divide and everybody seems to be angry with each other. It might be a good statement for us to go and to show, ‘Hey, let’s put this aside, put all this partisan stuff aside, and personal stuff aside, respect the institution, and maybe even if one of you players wants to voice your concerns over what’s happening, what better opportunity to do so.’ That may be incredibly idealistic, but I would want to at least bring that up with our players as an option rather than just coming out and saying, ‘No way, I’m not going.'”
Now it seems like that is never going to happen.
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