NBA
Warriors return to the White House to celebrate after a seven-year-hiatus
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated18 Jan 2023
The Warriors have won four titles in the past eight years, but they didn’t visit the White House while Donald Trump was president. That means Golden State haven’t been back in Washington D.C. since 2015, as they purposely missed out on their 2016/17 and 2017/18 NBA championship tours to the Oval Office.
“The Golden State Warriors are always welcome in this White House,” Biden said. The last NBA team to visit the White House was the Cleveland Cavaliers, just days after Trump was elected president and while Barack Obama was still in office.
Also during Joe Biden’s presidency, he had welcomed the Milwaukee Bucks to the White House as the 2020/21 title winners, as they were the first NBA champions to visit D.C. in nearly five years, ending Donald Trump’s term. Back then, Biden went onto praising the team not only for their accomplishments on the court, but also shined a light over their endeavours to promote vaccinations and speaking out against the social injustices of the time.
In remembrance to when the Bucks posponed matches during their first-round of the playoff series just to prove a point. “You took a stand for justice and peace in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and you’ve gotten people engaged,” Biden said that day back in 2021.
As for the Warriors, well, it’s been a quite some time since they popped in Washington D.C.. The Warriors beat the Boston Celtics in a six-game championship series last year, a victory that came after a complicated period for the squad, as they suffered many injuries in the past years and even fell to the bottom of the league. The President took notice of their struggles: “Critics wondered if this team was gone for good as a championship team. The last couple of years were pretty tough,” as he reacalled for a final joke, “fellas, I know what it feels like.”
The President made them feel right at home as he said the Golden State “are a reflection of America with their constant motion, with individual freedom and personality that comes together as one team, a team that plays with joy, with drive to be their best.” Joe Biden also had another classic lapse of memory as he hilariously forgot Klay Thompson’s name right at the spotlight.
Vice President Kamala Harris was probably the happiest at the White House event, as she considers herself a longtime Warriors fan, and of course, she is a California native. “As a very proud daughter of Oakland, California, it gives me immense personal pride as the vice president of the United States to say, Dub Nation is in the house,” Harris said as she introduced the ceremony.
Along with the President, Harris got a new jersey from the Warriors. Her’s had the number 1, as for Biden got one with 46, since he’s the 46th president.
Some new pieces for the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/1fpesW6BAs
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) January 17, 2023
Curry handed them both their new jerseys as he mentioned how he hopes to see it “on the wall of the Oval Office” and that hopefully they’ll win again to return and see it for themselves.
Who’s been to the White House the most?
Stephen Curry, who the President referred to as ”one of the best sportsmen of our time” in yesterday’s celebrations, is Golden State’s player who’s been to the White House the most.
As seen in this Twitter post below, Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins share it’s only been their first visit to the State Capitol, as for Andre Igoudala says it’s been his second. As part of the Golden State roster back in 2015, players such as Draymond Green and Klay Thompson would also have two visits to their names.
Jordan Poole, Steph Curry, Andre Iguodala, and Andrew Wiggins are counting up the Warriors' recent appearances in the White House 🏆pic.twitter.com/tvGc6EOo5E
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 17, 2023
The Warriors are finally back in the playoff qualification zone and stand 6th (22-22) in the Western Conference, as they play the Boston Celtics tomorrow in the TD Garden (6:30pm CST), to what we expect to be one of the best games of regular season so far.
