NBA champion Warriors spurn White House trip after Trump pulls invitation

By Catherine Lucey And Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press

The Golden State Warriors say they will not go to the White House when they visit Washington early next year, announcing the decision hours after President Donald Trump tweeted he was withdrawing the invitation.

Warriors star Stephen Curry had said he was not interested in the traditional event American championship teams usually have with the president.

“By acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to,” Curry said during the Warriors’ media day on Friday.

That raised Trump’s ire, with the president citing what he called Curry’s hesitation to accept.

 

“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,” the team said.

The Warriors added they’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.”

The statement said the team will still visit the nation’s capital in February “to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion – the values that we embrace as an organization.”

Lebron James and Chris Paul were among the NBA stars who took to Twitter to admonish Trump. James called Trump a “bum” while Paul urged him to worry about the real problems affecting the country.

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