Warriors Spurn White House Trip After Trump Pulls Invitation
OAKLAND (CBS/AP/BCN) -- The Golden State Warriors said the team "accepts" that it is not invited to the White House and instead will use an upcoming trip to the capitol to celebrate "equality, diversity and inclusion," announcing the decision hours after President Donald Trump tweeted he was withdrawing the invitation.
Warriors star Stephen Curry had said he was not interested in the traditional meeting American championship teams usually have with the president. That raised Trump's ire, with the president citing what he called Curry's hesitation to accept.
The Warriors say they're "disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise."
Trump responded Saturday on Twitter to Warriors star Stephen Curry, who told reporters on Friday, "I don't want to go ... my beliefs stay the same."
READ THE STORY: Curry: 'I Don't Want To Go' To The White House
Trump weighed in Saturday from his golf club Bedminster, New Jersey. He said: "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!"
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was rescinding the invitation for Curry or the entire team.
Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said Friday that the team expected to meet as a group in the coming days to decide whether to visit Trump's White House.
General manager Bob Myers said the Warriors have had discussions with the White House, and Golden State owner Joe Lacob also would be involved in the decision.
"I don't know what we're going to do," Myers said. "It's not as clear as, well I assume some people think it is and some people think it isn't. So, from our opinion, my opinion, it deserves a proper forum. It deserves the right amount of thought."
Curry said that "just like our country, every opinion counts and matters." He said he knows where most people stand, but "we want to respect the opportunity to represent not only ourselves, our own beliefs, but our organization because we're obviously in this position because we won a championship and we did something special together. So for us to just really take the time to understand the magnitude of this decision and the right thing to do, the right way to go about it is important."
Curry said a decision to not visit the White House would only be a first step.
"By acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to," Curry said. "It's not just the act of not going. There are things you have to do on the back end to actually push that message into motion."
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