PROPERTIES NON GRATA
There will be no room at the Trump inns as NBA teams avoid the President’s hotels,
CHICAGO— The Raptors are one of a handful of NBA teams no longer doing business with hotels owned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to a story published by the Washington Post and confirmed by Raptors officials, the team will no longer stay in the Trump SoHo hotel when on the road in New York City.
“We talked about it, talked about where we’re staying . . . It was a decision made by us and a lot of teams in the league,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after the team worked out in Toronto on Thursday.
Casey wouldn’t say where the Raptors will stay during three trips to the metropolitan New York area this season, citing security concerns and following a long-held organizational policy. “There’s reasons behind it but we’re not going to announce where we are staying.”
The Post story said 12 NBA teams had stayed at the luxurious Manhattan hotel since it opened in 2010 and 11 have stopped using it. The Raptors, the newspaper said, were among five teams to end its relationship with the property this season.
Toronto has three trips to the New York City area this season: Nov. 17 in New York, Jan. 8 in Brooklyn and a March weekend where they play both the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets on the same road trip.
The Post surveyed123 teams in various North American professional sports leagues to see how many use Trump properties on the road. Of the 105 responses the paper got, no teams confirmed they stayed at facilities owned — and now in trust — by the American president.
Trump has been at odds with professional sports teams and leagues throughout his presidency. He has called for NFL teams to fire players who do not stand for the American anthem at games and demanded the firing of ESPN host Jemele Hill for a tweet he found offensive. The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors decided they were not going to make a traditional visit to the White House to protest Trump policies hours before the president “rescinded” an invitation. The Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins did visit Trump at the White House this week.
Raptors president Masai Ujiri and all-star guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan spoke out against Trump before training camp began and Casey was again questioned about the intersection of sports and politics Thursday.
“The only thing frustrates me is the fact that we’re not getting back in transition defence, we’re not moving the ball (and) turning it over, like throwing it up in the third row,” he joked.
“Politics is politics, it’s been here for eons and you’re going to have good times and bad times. I don’t get frustrated (to the point) where I lose my mind in politics.”