Athletes Will Return to the White House. Here's What's Changed.

The activist athletes made their voices heard in the Trump years, but are not done yet

By Peter Nomeland

For the first time in a long time, an NBA champion will visit the White House. LeBron James has said that the Los Angeles Lakers hope to commemorate their recent NBA championship with a visit overseen by Joe Biden, the recently elected President of the United States. James was notably not a massive fan of the guy who used to have that job. The Golden State Warriors, who won two NBA championships during Donald Trump's presidency, were also very vocal about their distaste for the President’s conduct and policies, particularly star Steph Curry and head coach Steve Kerr, whose public criticisms of the administration led to the President “redacting his invitation.” The team said they hadn’t been planning on going in the first place.

The White House visit is just one of the many ways that sports and politics have intersected in the past few years, and there are many signs that this will continue in the years to come. The professional athlete's role in political discourse has been around since the 1960s but has never been as widespread and prevalent as during the Trump presidency. Case in point: the White House visit. Usually, when a major sports team wins a championship, the team visits the White House, where the President congratulates the team. Former President Obama, a noted sports fan, would often crack jokes with players. However, since 2017, when Trump took office, only one NFL team has visited the White House—no NBA or WNBA teams have visited. When teams have made the trek to 1600 Penn Ave, there are often notable absences, particularly those players who are minorities. Even Trump's old friend Tom Brady skipped his team’s visit for “family reasons.”

This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who pays attention to sports or the Trump administration. The former President continually got into spats with prominent members of the sports world, particularly with Colin Kaepernick when he kneeled during the National Anthem before football games, protesting the systemic police brutality that we see in this country every day. In the same vein that athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Bill Russell were provocative in their political beliefs, the recent rise of Black Lives Matter has given way to a new kind of activist athlete. Trump would often find himself speaking against these movements and athletes, creating a politicization of sports at the same time as those on the right were saying that athletes should stay out of politics. Or “shut up and dribble.”

This summer, in the WNBA bubble, the Atlanta Dream wore t-shirts in support of Reverend Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidate for one of the two open U.S. Senate seats in Georgia. An entire sports team supporting a political candidate would be an important story in normal circumstances, but especially in this case, as Warnock's opponent was a businesswoman and hardcore Donald Trump supporter Kelly Loeffler, who just so happened to be the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream at the time. The players made a bold decision to defy and lobby against their employer, but the WNBA has long been seen as the most progressive of the major sports leagues. Loeffler would go on to lose her Senate seat. 

The Atlanta Dream situation may be a look into the future of sports activism after Donald Trump. Many of the owners of these sports franchises are politically aligned with Loeffler. We may see more statements like this from teams towards the people who employ them. Because athletes have become more empowered to use their voices, could we see more displays of support for political and social causes that they believe in? Houston Texans star quarterback Deshaun Watson recently requested a trade from the Houston Texans. Reports have stated that Watson, one of the more outspoken figures in football, requested this trade partly because he has strong philosophical and political disagreements with Cal McNair, the team's owner. Take a wild guess whose presidential campaign McNair donated to.

When LeBron James and Tom Brady return to the White House, their continued dominance will be one of the only things that have stayed the same in the world. Hopefully, this change will continue to be for the better and not for the worse.