After reports started to surface on Tuesday that the NBA’s Golden State Warriors would not visit the White House following their championship victory (reports the team refused to confirm or deny) the Pittsburgh Penguins made a statement that they will in fact accept an invitation following their second consecutive Stanley Cup victory, if they are invited.
“The Pittsburgh Penguins would never turn down a visit to the White House and, if invited, we would go as a team,” team President David Morehouse said in a statement, via Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“We respect the office of the presidency of the United States and what it stands for. Any opposition or disagreement with a president’s policies, or agenda, can be expressed in other ways.”
If the Warriors do end up refusing their visit it would be a pretty significant statement as it would be pretty much unheard of for an entire team to not go.
Individual players, however, have taken advantage of their opportunity to skip the visit in recent years due to political opposition or disagreement. Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas skipped his team’s visit in 2011, while several members of the New England Patriots did not attend following their Super Bowl victory this year.