The NBA-champion Cavaliers visited the White House today for the customary ceremony with the president.
With Donald Trump succeeding Barack Obama, will the 2017 champs make a similar trip to Washington?
At least one Cavalier doesn’t think so.
Richard Jefferson, via HoopsHype:
Richard Jefferson on Snapchat. pic.twitter.com/dZgvSz6ysD
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) November 10, 2016
Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated:
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 (@ByLeeJenkins) November 9, 2016
Jenkins – who co-wrote LeBron James’ famous coming-home letter – added that he wasn’t talking about Jefferson.
And those Cavaliers might be right, but I’m not sure.
Trump ran on ideas of maintaining and expanding white nationalism, and that has justifiably caused fear and anger among American minorities and those empathetic to them. That is especially prevalent in the NBA, where a majority of players are black.
But there is still a chance a Trump presidency is benign enough that the 2017 NBA champions accept being honored by him as a representative of the office he holds. No other presidential candidate in American history has more regularly lied – ignoring the long-standing limitation of bending the truth – during the campaign. Trump will say anything. He is unpredictable, and so are the next four years.
The office of the presidency still carries gravitas and warrants respect. Obama met with Trump today.
I understand why so many players don’t feel comfortable validating Trump, but I’m not totally convinced that feeling will remain a year from now about what’s essentially an apolitical photo-op.
