Could Trump’s Position On White Supremacists Cause Cancellation of Sport Team Visits To White House? – Forbes

Kevin Durant, the 2017 NBA Most Valuable Player of the champion Golden State Warriors, has said he won’t be joining the customary trip to the White House of champion teams. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

As the country fractures over the violence in Charlottesville sparked by a white supremacist rally, how President Trump has reacted has done more to increase tensions than quell them. Trump has refused to directly denounce white supremacists saying that there is “blame on both sides.”

With CEOs resigning from the president’s advisory panels, the White House moved Thursday to disband them. Trump also scrapped a plan to convene an Infrastructure Council; an important focus for the president as well as the GOP-controlled Congress following campaign promises to create a $1 trillion infrastructure improvement plan.

Against this backdrop, the sports world, like all of America, is watching the situation. It has been customary for the championship teams in professional and collegiate sports to visit the president at the White House to celebrate their achievements.

It seems like every recent president has had their critics in the sports world. Matt Birk of the Baltimore Ravens didn’t make the trip when they won the Super Bowl during the Obama presidency. Manny Ramirez didn’t travel to visit George W. Bush when the Red Sox won the World Series. But under Trump, the number of players abstaining has been large (a large number of players from the New England Patriots didn’t make the trip in February), and may now may reach a critical point.

In the wake of the comments by Trump on Charlottesville, Kevin Durant has said that he will not visit the White House when the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors visit.

“I don’t respect who’s in office,” Durant said. “I don’t agree with what he agrees with, so my voice is going to be heard by not going,” who added this was not something being decided by the Golden State Warriors, and said, “That’s just me personally, but if I know my guys well enough, they’ll all agree with me.”

Durant continued, as reported by ESPN: