Biden hosts first pro basketball championship team since Obama

CHICAGO, United States

US President Joe Biden on Monday welcomed back to the White House a National Basketball Association (NBA) championship team, the first such visit since 2016.

In bright sunlight outside the White House, and to applause, Biden held up a Milwaukee Bucks jersey with the number "46" on it, a reference to his role as America's 46th president.

The Bucks have won two NBA championships, including this year's title, which ended a 50-year drought.

"Worst part is, I remember them both," Biden joked. "I was a kid."

Biden praised the league's most valuable player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, as a Greek immigrant with Nigerian parents, who came to the US in search of new opportunities. He also cited Antetokounmpo's advocacy on social issues, including police reform and vaccine promotion.

"This is awesome," the 26-year-old Antetokounmpo responded. "It's an unbelievable opportunity to be in the White House."

It is an opportunity many basketball players never had, or did not want, under the Trump administration.

Professional basketball teams often had a frosty, or outright hostile, relationship with Trump, mainly due to his comments disparaging athlete protests over police shootings of Black men and racial inequality in the US.

In his first two years in office, Trump only hosted half of the 20 major professional and collegiate team winners, in any sport, that would ordinarily come to the White House.

But his relationship with basketball, a sport dominated by Black players, was particularly frosty.

Of the 14 major professional and collegiate basketball teams, both men's and women's, that won championships during Trump's four years in office, only one visited: the women's collegiate championship team at Baylor University, from the US state of Texas, in 2019.

Some teams did not get an invitation to visit; other teams were invited, and declined, either citing scheduling conflicts or anger at Trump. Some teams preemptively announced they would not visit the White House even if an offer was extended.

One championship team, the Seattle Storm professional women's basketball team, did not get an invitation to the White House, then declared they were endorsing Joe Biden for president in 2020.

In one instance, Steph Curry, the star player for the California's Golden State Warriors, declared he was not interested in going to the White House, after the Warriors won the 2017 NBA championship.

Trump responded on Twitter, a platform on which he is now banned.

"Going to the White house is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!"