Danny Green Says 'Hard No' to Visiting Donald Trump, White House as NBA Champion

President Donald Trump has not decided whether he will invite the 2018-19 NBA champion Toronto Raptors to the White House to celebrate their historic season, but if he does, don't expect the team to make the trip.

"I just don't think that we accept," Green said on Yahoo Sports' Inside the Green Room of a potential invitation from President Trump. "... I try to respect everybody in every field that they do regardless of how crazy the things are—but he makes it really hard. He makes it very, very tough to respect how he goes about things and does things. To put it politely, I think it's a hard no."

After Toronto dethroned the Golden State Warriors in six games in the 2019 NBA Finals earlier this month, Trump was asked if he would invite the Canadian-based team. At that point, he said that he hadn't thought about it.

"We thought about that. That's an interesting question," Trump said, according to USA Today's Matt Eppers. "... That was a great job by a great team, so we'll think about that. If they'd like to do it, we'll think about that."

Visiting the White House following a championship had been a tradition under previous administrations. However, no NBA team has visited since Trump assumed office in 2017.

Both the Stephen Curry-led Golden State Warriors and the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers made it clear through the years that they had no interest in visiting the White House while Trump was in office. That led Trump to "rescind" an invitation to the Warriors in 2017, a move that united Curry and James:

Green even said that his response would cause President Trump to "take his invite back" if he does indeed put an offer on the table.