The Warriors will not be making the traditional White House visit to celebrate their NBA championship win this year, and coach Steve Kerr opened up for the first time about the decision to break the long-standing tradition.
Kerr, who is known to weigh in on political and social issues in the past, appeared on CNN's The Axe Files and clarified why the Warriors will not be celebrating their championship at the White House, with the main reason being a "human respect issue."
Kerr has visited the White House with with four different presidents (Reagan, Clinton, George Bush and George W. Bush) and he said even though he didn't agree with their political policies, he never thought of not attending because of that.
The honor to visit the White House "doesn't feel right" to the Warriors and Kerr with Donald Trump as the president. Kerr referenced Trump's recent controversial actions and words.
"We see what President Trump does with his words, with his actions, and it's difficult to reconcile that and just say we'll put all that aside," Kerr said, per USA Today. "He can make fun of handicap people. He can say a lot of nasty things, ugly things, whether it's about women, whomever. There can be a lot of things that happen that are just really difficult to just say, 'All right, we'll put that aside and go visit and shake his hand.' It doesn't feel right."
Kerr pointed to the president's response to the NFL national anthem protests by calling the players who chose to kneel "sons of b------."
"He used the words 'sons of b------' to talk about NFL players who have made it clear they're protesting racial inequality and police brutality," Kerr said. "Those are sons of b------? Really? You're the President of the United States and you're going to call them sons of b------? And you're going to call (Colin) Kaepernick out for non-violent protests, a staple of American democracy? That's really hard to deal with.
"For me, that was probably the hardest one to deal with. The personal slights that we've seen from Trump, you sort of get used to it after a while, you get numb to it. But that one really stung, because it was so divisive, and it was so angry, and it just didn't make sense."
Trump originally invited the Warriors to celebrate their championship at the White House but the invitation was "withdrawn" in September after some hesitation from star player Stephen Curry, and it appears Kerr fully supported Curry's uncertainty.
