The University of North Carolina’s championship-winning men’s basketball team won’t visit the White House this year to celebrate their victory, a spokesman said Saturday, citing scheduling issues.
The (Raleigh) News and Observer reported that the team tried several possible dates with the Trump administration’s schedule after receiving the invitation, but were unable to find one that worked.
“We couldn’t find a date that worked for both parties,” a spokesman for the team told the newspaper. “We tried about eight or nine dates and between them couldn’t work out that date, we couldn’t work out that date, so — we would have liked to have gone, but not going.”
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The spokesman added that the team members “were fine with going.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the scheduling issues or the team’s decision.
Team coach Roy Williams has criticized Trump in the past, especially over his Twitter use. Earlier this year, he accused the president of tweeting “bullshit.”
“It used to be much more so than I think it is now,” he said in April. “Now everybody’s has got social media, and we don’t need The New York Times to find out what in the dickens is going on in the country. You know, our president tweets out more bullshit than anybody I’ve ever seen. We’ve got social media.”
News that the team won’t visit the White House comes amid backlash from professional athletes after President Trump earlier Saturday tweeted that NBA star Stephen Curry was not welcome to visit the White House following the Golden State Warriors’ championship victory earlier this year.
Curry had said he didn’t want to visit the White House.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.