Golden State Warriors Take Students to African American Museum in Lieu of White House Visit

When the Golden State Warriors were in the D.C. area for what would’ve been their White House visit, the team went in a completely different direction by taking students to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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The Golden State Warriors celebrate with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-120 in Game 5 to win the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 12, 2017 in Oakland, California.

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With Washington, D.C. area students by their side, the Golden State Warriors visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture on a day when the team would’ve been visiting the White House. Back in September, Donald Trump withdrew the Warriors’ invitation after Steph Curry already said he wasn't going to come. “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!”

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr left the decision of where to go up to the players, telling ESPN that he wanted them to “have a good day and to do something positive and to enjoy what they're doing.” Following the Warriors’ victory over the Knicks on Monday, Klay Thompson spoke with the New York Post about the team’s alternate plans.

“The White House is a great honor, but there are other circumstances that we felt not comfortable going,” Thompson said. “We’re not going to politicize anything. We’re just going to go hang out with some kids and take them to the African-American Museum and teach them things we learned along the way, life lessons and hopefully give them some great memories.”

The Warriors released a statement addressing their unified decision to do something other than visit the White House. “In lieu of a visit to the White House, we have decided that we’ll constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion—the values that we embrace as an organization,” the statement reads. 

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