Thank goodness the Golden State Warriors lost the NBA Finals. The Bay Area will now be spared of what had become an annual question: Will they or will they not visit the White House?
That debate has now been transferred north to the Toronto Raptors and, to an extent, the rest of Canada.
Given that the team is based in another country, will President Donald Trump even extend an invitation? Or has the task of sending out Evites fallen to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?
Trudeau likely is getting the good china ready, according to CBC.
As for the first question, we say yes, considering how Trump is so welcoming with hostile foreign powers that might have intel that could be of use to him.
Our sources tell us that Fred VanVleet has a top-secret poutine recipe that’ll blow away plain old American french fries. Trump probably is willing to listen.
There is precedent for Canadian-based teams crossing the border and dropping in on Washington, D.C., according to Sports Illustrated.
The Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992, then got to hang out with President George H.W. Bush.
The following year, two Canadian franchises were crowned as champions — the Jays repeated as baseball’s best, and the Montreal Canadiens captured the Stanley Cup. Neither team visited the White House, although the Canadiens reportedly were invited by President Bill Clinton.
Those 1993 titles were the last by Canadian teams in the three major North American sports leagues — the NBA, NHL and MLB — with competitors from the Great White North.
Until the Raptors, that is.
If Kawhi Leonard and company do visit the White House, they will be the first NBA team to do so since the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. The majority of the Raptors players are American, with Chris Boucher as the only Canadian.
The Warriors declined to even consider a visit after back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.
You remember the exchange between the Warriors and Trump from a couple of years ago?
Trump: Come on over. Thinking of serving Burger King and Domino’s.
Warriors: We don’t want to go to the White House.
Trump: Who says I’m inviting you? There’s no invitation. None.
Warriors: We just said we’re not coming.
Trump: Oh, yeah! I know you are, but what am I?
So those quotes aren’t verbatim, but they accurately convey the feelings of both sides. A number of Warriors, most notably coach Steve Kerr and star player Stephen Curry, have not been shy about voicing their opinions on Trump and his policies.
The Warriors did visit the White House following their 2015 championship, but there was a different resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. at the time. President Barack Obama hosted the team and had a blast making fun of the players, particularly his buddy Curry.
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Usually, White House invitations to professional teams coincide with the team’s visit to the Washington area to play the local team the season following the championship run. In the NBA’s case, that team would be the Washington Wizards.
The past two years, however, the Warriors found alternate ways to to fill their downtime in the nation’s capital. In 2018, they visited the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Earlier this year, they hung out with old friend Obama.
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