Donald Trump is gone from the presidency, but the so-called “white supremacist” stands accused of preventing the reigning NBA champions from visiting the White House. This is the asinine assertion of Deadspin hate-monger Carron J. Phillips, who blames Trump for the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers not being able to visit President Joe Biden.
Phillips called Trump the “white supremacist that eternally merged politics and sports” (if you don’t count “Basketball Jones” Barack Obama enlisting NBA players to shill for Obamacare). And, Phillips alleges, the ramifications of Trump’s time in the Oval Office are still affecting American traditions:
“Trump is why it’s been more than 1,620 days since the NBA’s champions have visited the White House. … The 2020 Lakers were supposed to be the first to meet President Biden. But, due to the Trump Administration’s repeated failures when it came to having any type of plan for dealing with a global pandemic, ESPN is reporting that scheduling conflicts and COVID-19 protocols will prevent the Lakers from visiting during their time in D.C. when they play the Wizards later this month.”
LeBron James, Steph Curry, Megan Rapinoe and other woke athletes warred with Trump during his presidency and refused to visit him. And, we’re told by Phillips, that Trump could not understand why many athletes and teams didn’t go to the White House to be used as “props in a photo-op for a man that stood for hate, cruelty, and reckless behavior.”
Phillips also says the tradition of presidents hosting championship sports teams “became a burden rather than an honor under Trump.” It was not a burden for the many championship teams and Olympians who made White House visits priorities instead of trashing conservative politics and staying home.
In reality, President Trump had a lot of help in not receiving several championship teams. Many said they wouldn’t attend, so they weren’t invited. Some were too busy campaigning for Biden and the Democrats. Rapinoe picked a fight with the president during the 2019 World Cup women’s soccer championship run and vowed not to go if her team won the Cup.
When Phillips ran out of ammo in trying to make the case that Trump is responsible for the Lakers not being able to meet with Biden, he turned his wrath onto NFL Hall of Famer and Trump backer Brett Favre.
Despite feeling that some normalcy is returning to the White House, Phillips says it “doesn’t mean that it will prevent hypocritical idiots like Brett Favre from believing that sports and politics don’t mix.”
Favre recently told Andrew Klavan, on The Daily Wire, “I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I don’t watch anymore; it’s not about the game anymore.’ And I tend to agree.”
Hypocrite! declares Phillips. Favre and the 1997 Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl and visited the White House when Bill Clinton was president. By projection, Favre’s visit with President Bill Clinton is presumed by Phillips to have been political in nature.
Phillips’ bottom line is to blame Trump for damaging the tradition of White House sports championship receptions. And, if all else fails, he ridicules the president’s former supporters, like Favre, for invoking the "stick to sports" argument. These arguments are bogus, weak and nothing more than political theater.
