By ADAM ZAGORIA
Add Villanova to the list of basketball champions who won’t visit Donald Trump’s White House.
Villanova coach Jay Wright said Thursday at Big East Media Day that his team hadn’t yet been invited, and probably couldn’t make it anyway.
“We probably wouldn’t be able to get everybody together,” Wright said, according to Reuters and the Asbury Park Press. “We’ve lost staff members, we’ve lost players (to the NBA).”
Former Villanova assistant Ash Howard is now the head coach at La Salle, while four members of last year’s championship team are now in the NBA — Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo and Omari Spellman.
When the Wildcats won the title in 2016, President Obama met them at the White House.
“Two years ago it was the experience of a lifetime for all of us,” Wright said. “It’s just a different time and I understand it. So it is what is.”
Both professional and collegiate teams have backed out or haven’t been invited to the traditional championship ceremony at the White House since President Trump took office in January 2017. He has yet to host a basketball team.
In total, eight basketball champions have not made an appearance at Trump’s White House: 2017 NCAA men’s champion North Carolina; 2017 NCAA women’s champion South Carolina; 2018 women’s champion Notre Dame has not indicated whether they’ve been invited or will go; the NBA’s Golden State Warriors didn’t go in 2017 or ’18; 2017 WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx and 2018 WNBA champion Seattle Storm both did not go.
“At this point, it doesn’t even really need to be discussed,” Storm guard Sue Bird said last month. “It’s come up. We paid attention to what happened with Minnesota (the 2017 WNBA Champion) not getting invited. Everyone knew when everything happened with Steph Curry and LeBron (James) on social media, all that stuff. We all pay attention and we watch.”
Teams from other sports have visited the White House, including the Houston Astros and the Alabama football team. Trump invited and then rescinded an offer to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
(Reuters contributed)
Photo: AP
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