Donald Trump probably became the first president to wade into cultural tensions with sports, particularly the National Basketball Association (NBA), arguably the world’s largest sport next to international soccer.
The black-majority NBA and Trump has a strained relationship.
They represent in the eyes of white America, the 88% of black voters that supported Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.
NHL, MLB, NFL champions attend the White House under Trump; NBA does not.
Why is that?
Kurt Suzuki and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals showed that they are rich-Trump supporting Americans this week when Trump quickly invited the 2019 World Series champs to the White House this week.
Not all of the players from MLB, NHL and NFL were present during Tumpy Wumpy’s reign. Even pukehead Roger Clemens refused to visit Obama. And Sean Doolittle is a white pitcher who refuses to visit for the Nats this year.
Yeah, why in the world would black people have a problem with Trump? Truly, one of life’s most puzzling mysteries. It isn’t as though he’s ever done or said anything that could possibly have rubbed them the wrong way. In the eyes of this white American, it represents a baffling conundrum that not even Democrat Hillary Clinton and her cabal of ivory tower elitist eggheads could solve.
I don’t know if my mind is boggling as hard as the OP’s, but it’s definitely boggling. I’m so glad someone finally asked this question. Fellow Dopers, commence the Great Debate!
People are making a big deal about Trump getting booed by Nats fans, but they forget that we also booed George W Bush when he through out the first pitch at a Nats game.
I’ve been following baseball for a long time, it’s never been a secret that many of them that are political lean conservative. Just look at all the military and patriotic stuff that surrounds baseball, of course Memorial Day and Independence Day do fall during baseball season.
Now college football in Alabama isn’t going to allow student protests when Trump visits. I have no idea about the politics of the Alabama campus, but I assume it’s full of Trumpers given its location.
Packers tight end Mark Chmura did not visit the White House after his team’s Super Bowl win in the 90s. There was a lot of talk during that time that Chmura felt it was inappropriate to visit Clinton there during the sex scandal there but Wikipedia says that he went to a charity golf outing on that weekend because he wanted to support that. Of course, Chmura then went hot tubbing with some high school girls, so I’d like to think he wasn’t being hypocritical about the White House visit.
I also wonder what the background check is like for that kind of event since they’ll be close to the President. I could see some guys not wanting to disclose something from their youth especially if they’ve got a squeaky clean image now. Why drag up a DUI at 18 or being caught with a baggie of weed in the college dorm?
Actually, the only Super Bowl champions to visit the White House under Trump were the Patriots in 2017. In 2018 the White House cancelled the invitation to the Eagles when it turned most of the players weren’t going to attend. This year the Patriots didn’t visit either, ostensibly due to scheduling issues, but it’s likely they cancelled to avoid the embarrassment of a lot of Patriots players boycotting the visit as well.
I have no actual idea what kind of background checks might be involved, but I’d bet they’d be pretty minimal, considering that the players will presumably have gone through metal detectors and there will be Secret Service agents present.
Yes, there are a lot of conservative athletes in America, and whenever there are Democratic presidents, they do not attend.
Former Boston Bruins player Tim Thomas did not attend the White House to celebrate the 2011 Stanley Cup champs, because he disagreed with Obama’s politics.
The 2000 Yankees championship club liked George W. Bush than they did Bill Clinton, they liked Bush’s quicker speeches.
I am sure he probably skipped one of the Clinton visits; I heard somewhere that Clemens and fellow Yankee and friend Andy Pettitte did not like Clinton’s sexual infidelities.
Even former Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio, was conservative. DiMaggio despised baby boomer-draft dodger Bill Clinton before he passed away in 1999 at the age of 84.
:smack: That’s rich coming from Roger Clemens, a guy who carried on a decade-long affair with a female country singer half his age who later committed suicide.
Tim Thomas went batshit crazy and took a year off from playing hockey to supposedly focus on faith and family. I’m sure it has nothing to do with Tukka Rask.