President Donald Trump refused to invite the Golden State Warriors to a customary White House visit for NBA champions. So, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee invited the players and their families to the Capitol instead.
In a letter addressed to Golden State on Tuesday, Pelosi and Lee, who both represent California, extended an open invitation.
“In celebration of your victory, we would be delighted to welcome you publicly as a team or personally as families to the United States Capitol. Please consider this as a blanket invitation whenever your individual schedules allow,” the congresswomen said.
Before Golden State even won their third NBA title in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Trump told reporters on June 8 that “we’re not going to invite either team” for a visit to the White House.
His statement came “three days after Cleveland’s LeBron James said neither the Cavaliers nor the Warriors would accept an offer to celebrate an NBA championship with the president, an assertion that Golden State’s two former MVPs, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, later backed up,” according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
But there was no official statement from either team regarding a White House visit.
After winning the 2017 NBA title, Golden State was actually disinvited by Trump from a meeting tentatively planned for February 2018.
He tweeted on Sept. 23:
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the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!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
At a press conference on Sept. 22, Curry said that he, personally, did not want to visit the White House, but a final decision by the organization had not yet been made.
“They got disinvited to the White House, so it’s up to them what they wanted to do,” Head Coach Steve Kerr told ESPN in February. “So they made their plans. I want the players to have a good day and to do something positive and to enjoy what they’re doing.”
In light of the snub, in February while the team was in Washington, D.C., for a game against the Wizards, they took local children to visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) instead.
