Warriors unanimously decide to skip White House visit

The newly crowned NBA champions Golden State Warriors have unanimously decided they won’t visit the White House.

The Golden State Warriors haven’t been NBA champions for 24 hours, but they’ve come to a team-wide agreement that they will not be visiting President Donald Trump and the White House.

What is usually an annual tradition, championship teams visit the White House, get some photos and present the president with a custom-made jersey. It’s a trip sans politics. A reward for a team being the best in its respective sport perhaps meeting the President of the United States for the first time.

However, with today’s political landscape, and the newfound social agency among games’ top athletes, politics play a huge part. Several members of the Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots skipped their White House visit back in April.

Members of the Warriors have spoken out against the policies of President Trump since his inauguration.

Back in February, Shaun Livingston made the claim that if the Warriors won the championship, they wouldn’t visit the White House. Head coach Steve Kerr has been so adamant about his thoughts on the president it birthed a T-shirt with Kerr and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich as running mates in 2020. On the heels of Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank calling President Trump an asset, Stephen Curry — who is endorsed by Under Armour — said Trump was an ass. Big man David West has also gone on record with his feelings against the president.

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The Warriors are the first team since Trump’s presidency to decide they will all pass on a trip to the White House. Whether that starts a trend among other franchises, or the Warriors are a unified teams of like-minded individuals remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain, athletes are taking bigger roles in today’s social climate.

UPDATE: 

Earlier reports appear to have been inaccurate, or at least premature.