WASHINGTON — When it is safe to do so, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and NBA Finals Champion Los Angeles Lakers will be invited to the White House.
“We look forward to inviting the Buccaneers, as well as the 2020 NBA champions, the Lakers, to the White House, when it is COVID safe,” said Psaki. “But I don’t know when that will take place yet.”
In 2020, the champion Kansas City Chiefs were invited to the White House by President Donald Trump but never had the opportunity to attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the Los Angeles Lakers accept the invitation to the White House, it would be the first time an NBA team went to the ceremony since November 2016.
According to Thomas Neumann of ESPN, the tradition of championship-winning teams visiting the White House goes back to 1865, when President Andrew Johnson welcomed the Brooklyn Atlantics and Washington Nationals, amateur baseball clubs.
John F. Kennedy was the first president to invite the NBA champions to the White House when he invited the Boston Celtics in 1963.
The first Super Bowl winning team to visit was the Pittsburgh Steelers in February 1980 when Jimmy Carter was President of the United States.
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