Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said he plans on having a discussion with his team if they are invited to the White House in recognition for their NBA championship and hopes his players will consider the idea “out of respect for the office.”
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Kerr and several Warriors players, including their star point guard Stephen Curry, have spoken openly against Donald Trump causing many to assume that they wouldn’t visit the White House if the president invites them. But it seems that Kerr has given it some more thought and believes his team should consider it out of respect and as a display of unity for the country.
“We haven’t been invited,” Kerr told the “Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN Chicago on Thursday. “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,” Kerr admitted. (RELATED: No, The Golden State Warriors Have Not Declined An Invitation To The White House)
“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. Let’s look at if from a different perspective.”
“So that would be the conversation that I would have with our guys, and ultimately it would be their decision, you know because it’s about them,” Kerr added.
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Kerr briefly addressed the stories that have come out speculating whether or not his team will visit Washington, D.C. as they did when Obama was president and said he couldn’t believe how angry people are on both sides of the argument. The Golden State coach then got back to his point about the potential visit saying if his team goes out of respect for the office, Trump ought to start showing more respect for it as well.
“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,” Kerr continued. “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.”
“When you’re sitting in that office, it’s really your responsibility to try to unify, and that’s where our players and I have had a difficult time trying to reconcile all this stuff,” Kerr concluded.