stick to sports. what we re seeing today is professional athletes all across the spectrum saying, no. we are not bound to stick to sports. if we are attacked. if you de grade us, talk take personal attacks, talk about our mothers. if we feel the communities we care deeply about contribute our energy and talents to entertain and our money to support, are attacked, we have the right to say something. and it is not okay for the president or for any private employer to try to abridge the right of any pro-fegs nat athlete or any independent contractor to be able to make whatever statement that they want to make. you don t have the right to do that in this country. i do want to talk about the bigger picture here, because it s not just the nfl that we are talking about today. but the president also picking a fight with steph curry and the warriors essentially turning them away from coming to visit the white house which is standard because steph curry said he might not want to go.
of his most productive boxing years because of his anti-talk against the vietnam war. kareem abdull jabar, in terms of civil rights issues and issues important to the african-american community during his career. many of those athletes have been villy fied throughout their careers not necessarily by the president of the united states but certainly by fans of their sports who wanted them to, as we here again, stick to sports. it s something we heard over and over in the last few weeks and months, starting with colin kaepernick, continuing last week with the president s comment the about white house comments about my friend and former colleag colleague jam mel hill. where we expect athletes to expect any kind of treatment or any kind of degradation that might affect them and their communities but want them to
let me read the statement. sure. i think one of the things that s happened is the president has entered into a frey about sports that we rarely see other american presidents do. so it s a little bit i think i don t want to attack another panelist personally but i think it s disingenuous to say comparing the four of us getting together for coffee or drink to the american president breaking with tradition, which is to invite athletes to come to the white house after winning a championship. it is not new for some of them to say they don t want to come on the basis of who s in the white house. the most which we saw happen after the super bowl. a team the president has long time supported because of his relationship with the owner, coach, as well as with the quarterback. here s a statement from the golden state warriors. they were anticipating they would be invited at least, and this is what they write.