President Trump said Thursday that he would consider inviting the newly crowned NBA champions the Toronto Raptors to the White House “if they’d like to do it.”
“They played phenomenal basketball. I watched a little bit of it. They were really terrific. Congratulations … that was a great job, by a great team. So we’ll think about that, if they’d like to do it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about potentially inviting the Raptors.
The Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in six games earlier this month to claim Canada’s first NBA title.
{mosads}When asked about a potential visit to the White House on Thursday, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse suggested they would visit Canada’s parliament instead.
“You know, we’re here. Let’s go see Trudeau up in Ottawa. We’re Canada’s team,” he said on 590 The Fan’s Prime Time Sports.
The last two Canadian champions, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Montreal Canadiens, did not visit the White House when they won their respective titles in 1993.
Making a celebratory White House visit, previously a standard part of winning a title for major sports teams, has become a fraught subject for many athletes during Trump’s presidency.
A number of teams and individual athletes have rejected invitations from the president, with many citing his divisive rhetoric, particularly with regards to race.
Trump disinvited the Golden State Warriors after the team won the NBA title in 2017. No team has been invited since the Cleveland Cavaliers and Warriors made clear they would not accept an invitation during the past two NBA Finals.
The New England Patriots and Washington Capitals did visit the White House in 2017 and 2019, respectively.