Yahoo Finance Sources: Lakers hope to visit White House after President-elect Biden takes office
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking forward to reconvening a post-championship tradition of visiting the White House at some point during the 2020-21 season after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The ceremonial transferring of power from President Donald Trump to Biden takes place on Jan. 20.
Members of the franchise — from players to management — see it as a pleasure and an honor to have their accomplishment recognized by the incoming president, but reconvening the tradition this season shall depend on logistics, sources said.
Waiting to see if Biden’s schedule will be freed up for the lone occasion the Lakers travel to take on the Washington Wizards, and gathering information on what the White House COVID-19 protocols will look like are all determining factors, sources said.
The Lakers were unable to celebrate their title among a customary city parade due to the ongoing pandemic, which further adds to the desire to celebrate with Biden, who LeBron James publicly endorsed for president.
NBA teams fresh off of a championship season typically visit the president at the Oval Office the following year when they travel to the nation’s capital to play the Wizards.
At this point, the NBA has only released the first half of the NBA schedule — Dec. 22, 2020 to March 4, 2021 — and the Wizards hosting the Lakers didn’t make the first portion of the schedule.
The league doesn’t plan to unveil the second half of the season until a few weeks before the end of the first half of games, sources said.
No NBA team has visited the White House during the Trump administration. The last team to take a White House visit was the James-led Cleveland Cavaliers on Nov. 10, 2016, when Barack Obama was in office.
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