The NBA champions’ upcoming visit snaps a years-long streak of the league’s winners snubbing the president.
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President Donald Trump will honor the NBA champion New York Knicks at the White House, the team’s owner says, breaking a years-long streak of the league’s champions snubbing Trump.
James Dolan, a friend of the president who hosted him at a game last week, said the team was excited to accept the invitation.
“We just did receive an invitation from the White House, which we accepted,” Dolan said Wednesday on WFAN sports radio. “We still have to figure out the details, etcetera, but yes, of course.”
NBA teams have repeatedly declined invitations to be honored by Trump, beginning in his first term.
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Trump withdrew an invitation to the Golden State Warriors in 2017 after the team’s stars said they would probably decline to attend.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team,” Trump tweeted, criticizing one of the team’s stars. “Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!”
“I don’t know why he feels the need to target certain individuals rather than others,” Curry said in a subsequent news conference. “I have an idea of why, but it’s kind of beneath a leader of a country to go that route. That’s not what leaders do.”
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