U.S. President Donald Trump and the NBA haven’t had the best of relationships, and no championship-winning team visited the White House during his first presidency. It’s unclear how things will pan out in Trump’s second term, but Charles Barkley explained on The Steam Room podcast why he would accept the president’s invite despite not being his biggest fan.
“I’ve said this before, I’m not a Trump guy,” Barkley said. “But if I got invited to the White House, I would go. I’m not a Trump guy, I want to make that clear. But I respect the office. He’s the president of the United States. But if guys don’t want to go, I understand that, too. It doesn’t have to be a talking point. I don’t have to be un-American. I just wish y’all would stop falling for stupidity.”
Barkley believes he’d be showing respect to the office by accepting the invite. The 63-year-old understands, though, that there are still those who wouldn’t want to go.
Of course, this whole topic has come up again thanks to the events following the United States’ domination in ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the gold by beating Canada 2-1 in the final.
Following the men’s victory on Feb. 22, Trump called in to their celebrations and invited them to Washington for the State of the Union Address. He then joked that he’d have to invite the women’s team too, or else he’d probably get impeached.
The joke did not go down well. While all but five members of the men’s team made the trip, the women’s team declined the invite, citing scheduling issues in a statement.
“Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
Later at the State of the Union, Trump claimed the women would be visiting the White House soon. It will be interesting to see if that does happen.
Getting back to the NBA, there has been no word about Trump inviting the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 2025 NBA champions, to the White House. There has been no indication about whether the Thunder would accept the invite either.
If we go back in time a bit to Trump’s first presidency, Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry stated in 2017 that he wouldn’t go to the White House if invited after they won the championship. In response, Trump withdrew the invitation.
A year later, during the 2018 NBA Finals between the Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James stated that neither team would go to the White House if they won. Trump then made it clear that neither would be invited. The Warriors would go on to win, and they chose to visit former President Barack Obama.
The Toronto Raptors would then win the NBA title in 2019, and guard Danny Green stated the response to a potential invite from Trump would be a “hard no.” The Raptors would ultimately not make the trip.
The chances of the Thunder and other future NBA champions visiting the White House during Trump’s second term seem incredibly slim, but time will tell.
