WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx ‘not losing sleep’ waiting for White House invite 7 months after finals

The Minnesota Lynx haven’t been invited to the White House, or had any contact from the Trump Administration since they won the 2017 WNBA championship in October, head coach Cheryl Reeve recently told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media podcast.

The Lynx visited the White House after their championship wins in 2011, 2013, and 2015 when Barack Obama was in office.

“We have not, and that’s been disappointing,” Reeve said. “The sort of thrill we’ve experienced through winning four championships, Barack Obama was our president, and had been really, really thoughtful in that when we win ... so in October ... 2011, 2013, 2015 ... upon winning within 24 hours we would get notification that the White House would be calling us. Anyone that was still in town we would gather, and we would accept a call from the president. And we would have a conversation. Really meaningful, really special times.

“On that phone call, the president would say that he was looking forward to hosting us at the White House to celebrate our championship with him. That’s what we’ve grown accustomed to in the protocol of that. This president might have a different protocol, but to this point, we won in October, we haven’t heard anything from the White House in regards to a note of congratulations or an offer to visit this upcoming summer.”

Reeve told the Star Tribune that she “wasn’t losing sleep,” over the non-invite, and her team wouldn’t be the first professional sports champion not to have the option of visiting the White House since President Donald Trump was elected.

Most other high-profile sports teams that won championships were invited to the White House, including the NFL Super Bowl winning New England Patriots and NHL Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017, and the MLB World Series champion Houston Astros in 2018.

But the NBA’s most recent championship winner, the Golden State Warriors, were uninvited after publicly stating they wouldn’t have attended anyway. That led to a Twitter exchange between Stephen Curry and Trump, followed by LeBron James calling the president a “bum.”

It took seven months after Dawn Staley’s South Carolina women’s basketball team won the NCAA tournament to receive an invite to the White House. They also declined to attend.

Reeve suggested to the Star Tribune that her team may not have received an invite because they were women.

“The trend certainly is that women’s sports aren’t recognized in the same way men’s sports are,’’ said Reeve, who noted that the Houston Astros, World Series champs last fall, visited the White House in March. “That’s the unfortunate pattern. We don’t want to believe that’s the case, but it’s hard not to think that. When the Astros have won a championship and been there and we’ve gotten no communication, it’s certainly disappointing.’’

Reeve discussed on the podcast that she thought going to the White House might have made a difference.

“I had to give it some thought,” Reeve said. “I haven’t been force to really take a deeper dive, but in any year that we considered going to the White House, we always gathered our captains even prior to this president because sometimes the schedule doesn’t work, or maybe it might create a hardship. So we always considered ‘Should we go?’ And we always let them decide.

“So there wouldn’t be anything different should we receive a call with an invite. We would gather the leaders. Now, this one requires more conversation, this isn’t just going to be about ‘this is between a road trip’ or ‘we don’t want to jeopardize the current season’. This would be deeper. There are some that have pretty deep feelings about sharing this with this president.

“But I would encourage much more dialogue about it. And to use it as an opportunity to shine the light on things that we value that might possibly open our president’s mind. Now I don’t know whether I would win that or not. But I would certainly encourage dialogue. Because I think that is what this president invokes in a lot of us, to take sides. I would want us to not let this president effect us in that way. This championship was very special to us. Champions visit the White House. Are we going to let this president stand in the way of that? Is there a way that we could accomplish what we want to accomplish as a team in sharing something special and also doing some good in bringing some people together?”

With the season set to begin so soon, it’s looking like the Lynx may never receive an invite. They play in Washington, D.C., against the Mystics twice though, on May 27 and June 7.

The WNBA season tips off May 18.