Adam Silver says NBA players shouldn’t skip White House visit

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver isn’t a fan of the idea players might skip going to the White House in future years.

The idea NBA players might boycott a trip to the White House with Donald Trump as President started after the Cleveland Cavaliers won the title. Those were simply rumors, but the idea has taken off for various reasons.

For Silver, doing so would amount to a missed opportunity for influential people to let their voices be heard. He spoke with Mike Wise of The Undefeated on the topic:

To me, if a player were to choose not to go to the White House, whether they were choosing not to go to the current White House or a future White House, my response would be: ‘That’s a lost opportunity. Because that’s an opportunity that most citizens who have a political point of view would kill for — the opportunity to directly tell the president of the United States how they feel about an issue.

Now, if the president were to say, ‘I have no interest in what members of the NBA think about an issue,’ that might surprise me and I might have a different response.

Wise words, though it remains to be seen if players will feel the same way—or if they believe what they say would have an impact.

Alas, Silver hasn’t been the type of commissioner to step in the way of his player’s ability to protest. Whether it is sitting for the national anthem or boycotting the Trump administration, the NBA remains miles ahead of other leagues in this sort of area.

Should players want to skip a White House invitation, the NBA likely won’t say much on the matter. Silver, at the least, would want them to keep his thoughts on the matter in mind.