Steve Kerr will sit down with his team to talk about a White House trip, if an invitation is forthcoming. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Stephen Curry has said he isn’t interested in visiting the Trump White House to celebrate the Golden State Warriors’ NBA title.
“Somebody asked me about it a couple months ago, a hypothetical, if a championship were to happen: ‘What would I do?’ ” he said in June, a few days after his team beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games. “I think I answered that I wouldn’t go. I still feel like that today.”
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Kevin Durant feels the same way.
“Nah, I won’t do that,” he said in August. “I don’t respect who’s in office right now.”
Despite the previous statements of his two most prominent stars, Warriors Coach Steve Kerr told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne on Thursday that a visit to the White House still is on the table.
“We will meet as a team to discuss it and make a decision,” he said.
It’s not the first time we’ve heard this from Kerr, a critic of President Trump’s policies. A week after his team won the title, he said “it’s very important to consider a potential invitation, because I think it could have really positive ramifications if we did go.” He stuck to that stance in his remarks to Shelburne:
“I’ve talked to a couple of them about it,” Kerr told ESPN. “There are a lot of different dynamics to this and different viewpoints. We’ve got players from all over the world and all over the country, and they’re going to have different perspectives, so I think it’s important for us all to get in a room and hash it out and decide what we want to do.
“The league isn’t going to tell us what to do. They know it’s our decision and that, for me, really, it’s the players’ decision.
“I will put my two cents in, but the players, they’re the ones who won the championship, they’re the ones who did all the work and they’re the ones who will be very responsible for everything that we do. As a staff, we try to guide them on the floor. But in the end, to me, it’s all about the players. Everything we do is about the players.”
This is all assuming a White House invitation is forthcoming; Kerr told Shelburne that the team hasn’t gotten one yet. If one is extended and the Warriors accept, the visit seems likely to take place sometime around Feb. 28, when Golden State plays its lone game of the season in Washington against the Wizards.
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