Back in the day, visiting the White House used to be the ultimate honor for sports champions. NBA, NFL, and MLB champions got to spend one day with the most powerful man on Earth.
Nonetheless, it has now become a bit of a tradition to see teams skipping their visits, mostly for political reasons. Now, the Denver Nuggets have become the latest team to take that approach.
Apparently, this has nothing to do with politics but with timing. Nikola Jokic and company have all eyes on the first seed in the Western Conference, and they cannot spare a single day.
Nuggets Won’t Visit The White House
“The Denver Nuggets are prioritizing the No. 1 seed,” reported Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report. “They wanna do all they can to get up to that spot going into the playoffs. I have a story on how serious they are with that goal. The defending champs were supposed to go visit the White House in late January, but the Biden Administration had a scheduling conflict. At some point in February, the visit was rescheduled for March 18t. They play the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minnesota on March 19th. The Nuggets have made the tough decision of canceling their White House trip to prioritize that Minnesota game because they’re doing everything they can to earn the No. 1 seed.”
Nikola Jokic
Charles Barkley Calls The Nuggets Out
As much sense as this could make, especially considering the timing of this visit, this decision didn’t sit well with Charles Barkley. The Hall of Famer took offense at the fact that teams continue to skip this visit:
“Are they flying Southwest or something?” Barkley said. “Come on, man. I actually have a problem with this whole thing that’s happened in sports the last few years, not just now. It’s an honor and a privilege to go to the White House. It shouldn’t matter who’s in the White House. It’s an honor and a privilege to go to the White House. You should always go. Whether you like the president or not. It’s an honor and a privilege to go to the White House and you should always go.”
At the end of the day, everybody’s entitled to their opinion on this matter. The Nuggets have one goal and one goal only, and they won’t let anything distract them from that, not even the President of the United States of America.
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