Lately in the news, our president, Donald Trump, has been having issues with sports and its players. Trump has been making many different statements on the NFL and the whole dilemma about players kneeling during the national anthem and protesting during NFL games.

After an NBA team wins the finals, they earn a trip to go to the White House and shake hands with the president, they also get to give the president a custom made jersey, and many other things. Our past president, Barack Obama, was able to get custom jerseys from the Golden State Warriors (2015 NBA finals champs), the New England Patriots (2017 NFL Super Bowl champs), The Los Angeles Lakers (2010 NBA finals champs), and many others college and pro champions.

This past year, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA finals and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers four games to one in a five game series. Just like every year previous, the Warriors were going to head to the capital of our country and go and meet Donald Trump to give him his personalized jersey. All this was going well until Trump decided to make comments on the recent NFL protests, and that the players who are participating in these protests should “be fired,” and shouldn’t be able to play anymore.

Being a humble man, Stephen Curry, the superstar point guard from the Warriors, responded to the president’s tweet, as reported by the Washington Post, “And by acting and not going, hopefully, that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to.”

Shortly after Curry made his remark, President Donald Trump tweeted out “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn.” According to the Washington Post, the Warriors responded to his tweet saying that they were fine with not going to the White House and they would “Constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversion, and inclusion.” 

In recent times, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, responded to the matter with multiple responses on the NBA’s official website. “I have a general concern as a citizen that there’s a huge gap – call it a gulf – in our society right now, and it’s incredibly divisive. And I believe this league can play a role in attempting to unify people.” He stated during an interview that he knows of an NBA rule that states that all players and coaches must stand during the national anthem.

Since 16 of the 32 states that NBA teams are based in voted for Trump, Silver was asked if he thought players making statements would offend the NBA fans. Silver replied with a no saying that he doesn’t think that players speaking out will be an issue.

According to the NBA’s official website, NBA player Lebron James commented on Silver’s response to a tweet he (Lebron) had made earlier on his personal twitter account “He (Trump) used the sports platform to try and divide us and sports is so amazing and what it can for everyone. No matter the shape, size, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.. People find many things because of sports and it bring people together….. I’m not going to let, while i have this platform to let one Individual no matter what the power he/she should have use sports to divide us.” 

Right now, sports and politics are colliding for reasons under the sole purpose of someone wanting to stand for something they believe in or stand for. These players are only trying to make a point for what they believe in and are being accused of doing something wrong by someone who should be leading our country and not saying words that upset us and divide us. After these events we should know how to stay together as a whole country and not let individual opinions of certain people change how we see things.