When the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers visited the white house after winning the NBA Championship the previous year, only two days after Donald Trump was elected, it was anticipated to be an excellent send off for Barack Obama. With a team full of black athletes, it was a much-anticipated visit that Obama himself was excited for. This was a bittersweet visit because of the visit of the NBA champions was also close to the much-anticipated inauguration of the newly elected president, Donald Trump. It should also be noted that Megan Rapinoe, who is an American National Team member for soccer, famously refused to visit while Trump was in office.  

Although what the recent elected president Joe Biden will do with sports is not at the front of everybody’s minds, let alone his own mind, it will be interesting to see how athletes from championship winning teams will approach the coveted visit to the white house. This is because when Trump was elected, specific athletes from teams decided to decline their invitation and teams were even disinvited, like the 2017 NBA champion Golden State Warriors. 

Athletes like LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Donovan Mitchell, have recently posted on social media expressing how happy they are with the result of the recent election. This is particularly interesting given Trump’s racist history to see again how athletes will approach the invitation to the white house. Although these social media posts don’t give us an exact confirmation of how Biden will approach welcoming athletes to the white house, this allows us to be optimistic that athletes will want to attend the event and will likely be welcomed with open arms.  

J.E.A. Petrunick

Featured image: Obama receives championship winning jersey from Kevin Love (Source: (Geoff Burke, USA Today Sports)