While there have been hints — and even overt statements — that players on NBA championship teams over the next four years will forgo the traditional visit to the White House because of President-elect Donald Trump, NBA commissioner Adam Silver is imploring players not to go through with any such boycott.
Silver says a visit to the White House would provide an opportunity for socially conscious players to speak with Trump about issues that concern them.
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In a piece on The Undefeated that touches on several facets of the league’s intersection with social and political issues, Silver says:
“To me, if a player were to choose not to go to the White House, whether they were choosing not to go to the current White House or a future White House, my response would be: ‘That’s a lost opportunity.’ Because that’s an opportunity that most citizens who have a political point of view would kill for — the opportunity to directly tell the president of the United States how they feel about an issue.
Now, if the president were to say, ‘I have no interest in what members of the NBA think about an issue,’ that might surprise me and I might have a different response.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers visited President Obama on Nov. 10, two days after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, and there were suggestions it may have been the last trip to the White House by an NBA champion as long as Trump lives there.
The Cavs are going to the White House tomorrow. One of them speculated they may be the last NBA team to do that for a while.
— Lee Jenkins (@SI_LeeJenkins) November 9, 2016
Cleveland guard Iman Shumpert went so far as to say that if the Cavs repeat, “I’m not going to the White House” (via Complex).
But Silver thinks the institution of the American presidency is “bigger than any one man, whether that man be President Obama or President Trump," he said. "Ultimately players have to make their own decisions. But if they were seeking my counsel, my counsel would be that they should go to the White House if offered the opportunity.”
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The commissioner realizes that being the steward of a predominantly black league carries with it certain responsibilities and sensitivities.
“I do feel a particular obligation to focus on the African-American community in that we have a league that is roughly 75 percent African American,” he said. “And I feel part of the obligation comes from the history of this league that I’ve inherited.”