NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Is Saying Players Shouldn’t Boycott Donald Trump’s White House, Here’s Why

PEOTUS Donald J. Trump hasn’t even taken a seat the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office yet, but already NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is cautioning his players against boycotting the Trump White House.

It appears as if the NBA Commissioner is trying to get out ahead of a potential controversy, one that’s been brewing every since LeBron James hit the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton and openly questioned whether or not he would show up to shake hands at The White House with Donald Trump.

Adam Silver‘s remarks came in an interview with The Undefeated, and he didn’t just blanketly caution NBA players to remain open to the idea of visiting Trump’s White House after an NBA Championship. Instead, he offered up reasons on why he personally believes it would be a mistake for any player to skip the ceremonial trip to The White House:

“To me, if a player were to choose not to go to the White House, whether they were choosing not to go to the current White House or a future White House, my response would be: ‘That’s a lost opportunity,’ ” Silver said. “Because that’s an opportunity that most citizens who have a political point of view would kill for — the opportunity to directly tell the president of the United States how they feel about an issue.
“Now, if the president were to say, ‘I have no interest in what members of the NBA think about an issue,’ that might surprise me and I might have a different response.”
Either way, Silver said, “The institution is bigger than any one man, whether that man be President Obama or President Trump. Ultimately players have to make their own decisions. But if they were seeking my counsel, my counsel would be that they should go to the White House if offered the opportunity.” (via TheUndefeated)

Regardless of your feelings towards current President of the United States Barack Obama or PEOTUS Donald Trump, the NBA Commissioner makes a very valid point: boycotting a meeting with the President is foregoing the chance to air your political grievances with the most powerful man in the world. If you’ve got an issue with someone wouldn’t it be more productive to talk it out with them directly instead of sitting at home, stewing in anger, and assuming that person knows what your beef is?

Currently, the Golden State Warriors’ odds at winning the 2017 NBA Championship is 4/5, and the Cleveland Cavaliers have a 2/1 chance to reclaim the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship trophy in 2017. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if there’s a White House boycott at the end of the 2017 NBA Season, and if NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s able to get his message through to the top players, but there’s really no way of knowing what the future holds.

To read more from Adam Silver’s interview you can HEAD ON OVER to UPROXX!