Jeremy Lin Supports Steph Curry's Decision Not to Meet Trump at White House
Jeremy Lin says he agrees with the way his fellow Christian NBA point guard Steph Curry handled his decision to skip the tradition of attending The White House as a reigning NBA champion.
Lin, the Brooklyn Nets point guard, said he thought it was great that Curry, the 2016–2017 championship winning Golden State Warriors PG, took a stand.
"I think that it's great for everyone to take a stand. I really like the way that Steph did it," Lin said told Newsday. "I felt like he did it in a polite way where he wasn't trying to create hostility or separation. I felt like he was on one end being firm in his beliefs and expressing to everybody what he believes in, and at the same time being gracious about everything and not having any name-calling or things like that."
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Curry initially told reporters that he along with other Warriors teammates wouldn't be going to the The White House because they don't support President Donald Trump.
"..We don't stand for basically what our president has — the things that he's said and the things that he hasn't said at the right times — that we won't stand for it," Curry said last week. "By acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country, what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye toward. It's not just the act of not going, there are things you have to do in the back end that you have to push that message into motion."
After Trump heard Curry's comments, he rescinded his invitation to The White House via Twitter.
"Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team," Trump tweeted on Sept. 23. "Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!"
Curry isn't the first professional athelet to turn down an invitation to go to the White House. As USA Today reported earlier this year,"Tom Brady skipped the White House visit when Barack Obama was in the White House, at the time citing a scheduling conflict.
"When the Ravens won the Super Bowl, Matt Birk skipped the team's visit, citing his opposition to Obama's pro-choice policies. Manny Ramirez didn't visit George Bush in the White House. Three members of the 1972 Dolphins team vowed to not visit Obama after he belatedly honored that team in 2013."
Looking at the situation from an outside perspective, Lin said he doesn't see how Curry and his team could have handled the situation differently.
"Obviously the invite was rescinded, which is just a tough situation to be in, but looking at Steph and the Warriors, I don't think they could have done anything differently. A lot of what Steph described I feel as well," he said. "I'm a minority too. ... I'm not big into politics, but right now I really am in terms of learning and trying to figure out how do I use my platform and my voice to take a stand. Because at the end of the day, we see a lot of injustice still and things aren't the way we thought they should be in America, or aren't the way they wish they could be."
