Could the Toronto Raptors snub US president Donald Trump and visit Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau instead?
- Head coach Nick Nurse did little to quell rumours his squad will pass on visiting the White House, and chances are they might not even get invited by Trump anyway
- Nurse did say he is in touch with Trudeau’s reps to visit Parliament Hill in Ottawa
It’s never good to read into comments too much, but Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse just dropped a juicy one.
Asked on a Canadian radio sports station whether he’s received invitations from Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, or Donald Trump’s White House, Nurse only confirmed he’d spoken with Trudeau’s camp about setting up an official meeting. Of course, he added what many would call a slight, a dig, or maybe he was just thinking out loud.
“I’ve heard nothing about the White House,” said the 51-year-old Iowa-native who took Canada’s only NBA team to their first championship in history. “We’re Canada’s team anyway, right?”
Nurse, who was an assistant coach with the Raptors before taking over the top role in 2018, was then asked if he would accept an invitation from Republican Trump.
“I don’t know,” he answered, which was followed by a few seconds of word stumbling. “I, I, don’t, I don’t ... well I think, you know, we’re here, let’s go see Trudeau in Ottawa, we’re Canada’s team.”
Context is important. The last time a Canadian team playing in the NBA, NHL or MLB (Canada does not have an NFL franchise) won a championship was in 1993 when the Toronto Blue Jays won their second straight title. That same year the Montreal Canadiens also won the Stanley Cup. The Blue Jays went to the White House the year before in 1992, visiting Republican George H.W. Bush, and the Canadiens sadly did not get an invite from Democrat Bill Clinton.
Nurse does have a point about being Canada’s team, and it would be odd if the 2019 Stanley Cup champions St Louis Blues accepted an invite to the White House given they have 19 Canadians on their 27-man roster (70 per cent of the team) and only three Americans. It becomes an interesting side note given almost the exact same percentage of the Raptors’ roster comprises Americans.
One must also take into account that the Golden State Warriors, downed by the Raptors in six games, passed on visiting the Oval Office in the previous two seasons, part of a Twitter war that Trumpengaged in with Steph Curry. The Bay Area team instead snagged a quick meet-and-greet with former US president Barack Obama in lieu of the whole mess.
A few athletes did snub Obama, including Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who used the “family commitment” excuse. In fact, passing on the White House is nothing new, everyone has done it at one point or another for a variety of reasons: Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Manny Ramirez and NFL linebacker James Harrison, who vetoed visits to Bush and Obama.
It’s impossible to ignore that the issue has become supercharged in the age of Trump and his divisive politics.
The only Raptor who grabbed a ring before this season is Kawhi Leonard, who won a title with the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013-14 season. That team visited Obama in the White House and the whole thing was one big love fest. Obama poked fun at the team’s ageing roster, while head coach Gregg Popovich did an official White House video with then first lady Michelle Obama about military veterans the year afterwards.
It’s pretty clear if Popovich had won this year with the Spurs, he would not only deny the invitation but take another shot at Trump as he has previously characterised the entire man’s presidency as “disgusting”. Not much is known about Nurse’s politics, but his home state of Iowa was won by Trump in 2016.
Chances are, Trump won’t want to lose face and will forgo inviting the squad to begin with. However, a visit with Trudeau will surely make international headlines and pour kerosene on the fire and may result in some late night tweeting from the 45th president of the United States.
Thus, in all likelihood, one can only wonder what a Trump visit might look like given the Raptors are comprised mostly of African-Americans, along with an Asian-American Harvard graduate, a Briton, a Congolese-Spaniard, a Spaniard, a Saint Lucian-born Canadian and a Cameroonian.
Reading into this, my money is on a hard pass from Nurse and his boys, and a love-fest on Parliament Hill.