9/23/2017
The day after Stephan Curry told reporters that he would rather not accept an invitation to visit the White House because of his objections to the current administration’s policies and rhetoric, Trump tweeted that he was revoking any invitation because of Curry’s remarks.
Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017
For his part, Curry said that he had never set out to become a political figure and that he was surprised that the president had singled him out. “I don’t know why he feels the need to target certain individuals rather than others,” Curry, a two-time N.B.A. most valuable player, said at a news conference after the team’s first practice of the season. “I have an idea of why, but it’s kind of beneath the leader of a country to go that route. It’s not what leaders do.” Curry later added “I’ve played golf with President Obama, I’m pretty sure I won’t get a tee-time invite during this regime.”
Visiting the White House is a long standing tradition for sports champions. However, there had been some doubt as to whether the NBA champion Warriors would attend, as it is well known members of the team, including Curry and Coach Steve Kerr, have been critical of the President.
After leaning of Trump’s withdrawal, the team got together and issued the following statement:
“While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited. We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them. We’re disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise.
In lieu of a visit to the White House, we have decided that we’ll constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion — the values that we embrace as an organization.”
The Warriors, including Curry and Kerr, were welcomed to the White House under President Obama.
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