LeBron James says neither Cavs or Warriors would visit White House

Regardless of who wins this year’s NBA title, LeBron James says neither the Cavaliers or Warriors will visit the White House and President Donald Trump.

“I know no matter who wins this series, no one wants the invite anyway. So it won’t be Golden State or Cleveland going,” James said on Tuesday.

Warriors star Stephen Curry agreed.

“I mean, I hope to be in that situation and win two more games where we win a championship and obviously know what comes with that. But I don’t think — I think I agree with LeBron. Pretty sure the way we handled things last year, kind of stay consistent with that.”

Last season, after beating the Cavaliers, the Warriors did not visit the White House and instead held an event with D.C.-area kids.

James’ comments came hours after the Trump administration announced that the NFL champion Eagles had their invitation to visit the White House revoked, with the White House citing protests that have occured during the anthem across the NFL as the reason why. This past season, no Eagles player knelt for the anthem.

“I think as long as he’s in office, then the communication and things like that are going to continue to happen,” James said. “It’s a lot of things that we believe in as Americans that we don’t feel that he’s for. There are a lot of people that believe that he’s not for the people or doing things that’s right by the people.”

“So it’s not surprising hearing the news today with the Eagles. But I think more importantly, as Americans and especially people in Philadelphia, we shouldn’t let that news take away from what that unbelievable team did and accomplished, what all those players did to sacrifice throughout each and every Sunday, going out and playing the style of football that they played and winning a Super Bowl the way they won it. Let’s not let that accomplishment of things that you will have for the rest of your life, and people will always call you a champion for the rest of your life, let’s not let someone uninviting you to their house take away from that moment. Because I think the championship — winning a Super Bowl or winning a Stanley Cup or winning a World Series or winning an NBA Championship or National Championship — is way bigger than getting invited to the White House, especially with him in there, in my opinion.”

James also called it “laughable” that the WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx did not receive an invitation from the Trump administration.

“I think it’s laughable at this point,” he said. “You always hear the saying: You just laugh to stop you from crying. I think that’s a lot of the instances that are going on as far as outside of the sports world. But we know how important sports is to our country and how it continues to bring people together, excite people, make people talk about it, no matter if it’s here on this stage here or on the streets or on the bus, in the barbershops, in coffee shops or wherever the case may be. We know sports is so big because it’s able to captivate people and bring people together. For them not to even be invited, playing our beautiful game of basketball — no matter if it’s the WNBA or NBA or little leagues or high school, whatever the case may be, it’s basketball. It’s our beautiful game. Those women, those girls, they’re unbelievable at doing it. I think it’s laughable, in my opinion.”