NEW YORK — The Seattle Storm are heading to the White Home to rejoice their 2020 WNBA championship.
The workforce was formally invited by President Joe Biden to take a look at Monday afternoon. The Storm perform at the Washington Mystics on Sunday.
“I feel for a quite very long time, up until 2016, going to the White Property was an honor. It was not essentially political. It was to meet up with the president of the United States. The human being who retains that business acknowledging your team’s accomplishment,” stated Seattle guard Sue Bird, who will be producing her third excursion to satisfy a president. “It was an amazing honor. Even when you look at a motion picture like ‘Forrest Gump,’ I’m relationship myself a small little bit, you fully grasp in that film what an remarkable honor it was. It was not political. I consider that all shifted in 2016.”
With Donald Trump out of business office, Chook reported she was joyful to be likely back again. Several WNBA players, which include Hen, have been outspoken in their embrace of social justice actions these kinds of as Black Lives Make any difference, which Trump characterised as violent, radical ideology. Trump was also crucial of Bird’s fiancée, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
“Now that it can be again in a spot wherever it is really regarded as an honor and you happen to be acknowledged by the highest office environment in the region is enjoyable, it is enjoyable,” Fowl reported. “It really is not just about assembly the president or with any luck , the vice president is there. It’s about the entire working experience of getting in the White House. Getting a day which is about your workforce and celebrating what you’ve got accomplished.”
In addition to her two past White Residence visits, Hen has been invited 3 other periods following profitable championships — as soon as with UConn and twice with the Storm — but couldn’t go to.
The Storm, who have received four titles, will be joined by the team’s ownership group and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. The staff past visited the White House in 2011.
No NBA or WNBA workforce has visited the White House since the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, Barack Obama’s final yr in business.