Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors have made it clear they’re not fans of president Donald Trump, but that doesn’t mean they won’t accept an invitation to visit the White House should it ever come.
Kerr spoke about a potential presidential visit Thursday on the ESPN Chicago show Waddle and Silvy and explained his thoughts on Trump and the White House.
Though he stressed no official invite has been extended since the Warriors won the title earlier this month, Kerr said he and the team would weigh an invite “out of respect for the office.”
“We haven’t been invited. And so if we’re invited, we’ll definitely have a discussion. You know, I’ve been outspoken about Trump, our players have been as well. But my whole thing is—I would want to talk to the team and entertain the idea of going out of respect for the institution, out of respect for the office itself, and maybe as a good gesture to the rest of the country that is so divided right now that maybe it’s like, hey, let’s actually, you know, try to do something that’s unifying, whether you like the person in the office or not.”
Kerr later said he is disappointed that the president doesn’t have that same respect for the office as he and the Warriors would have if they were to visit. In fact, it’s one of the things the team is disappointed in.
“It’s important to me that there’s a respect for the office and for the institution, and that’s why I would consider going. But I will be perfectly blunt and I know I’ll anger people by saying this, but I want the man who’s sitting in the office to respect that office, too, and that means being above the tweeting and the nasty personal insults and trying to unify the country instead of trying to divide us, and I feel like he’s trying to divide us.”
Though initial reports after the Finals indicated the Warriors would decline a visit to the White House, they can’t actually say no to an offer that hasn’t been extended. In the weeks since, Stephen Curry and others have weighed in on a potential visit. Each time they seem to lean no, but we won’t know what actually happens until the Trump White House decides to give the Warriors a chance to turn them down.
