Three NBA teams have taken a political stand by opting not to stay at Donald Trump-branded hotels.
ESPN reports the Milwaukee Bucks, the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzles have moved away from Trump hotels in Chicago and NYC as a way to avoid any implied association with the new president-elect.
Sources told the sports network that another Eastern Conference team contracted to stay at the Trump SoHo in New York this season has also decided to switch to a different Manhattan property when its current contract expires at the end of the season.
The Trump association is among the factors for the switch.
On Tuesday, several other teams told the network that they are still currently scheduled to stay at Trump-branded properties this season. There are eight teams in sum.
Three prominent NBA coaches have publicly expressed the unease that they and some of their players feel in the wake of Trump’s election. Detroit’s Stan Van Gundy said that the country’s new president is “openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic and ethnocentric.”
Several teams that have stayed at the Trump SoHo in the past told ESPN that they are not staying there this season, but did not specifically attribute the switch to any political reason.
Trump does not currently hold an equity stake in the Trump SoHo hotel, but his company still owns and operates the Chicago property.
