SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Golden State Warriors yesterday vowed to visit Washington next year as the team responded to President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of a White House invitation.

A statement from the NBA champions said Trump had “made it clear” the team would not be invited to the White House in keeping with past tradition.

However, the organisation said the team would instead make their own trip to the US capital in a visit intended to “celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion”.

“While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited,” the Warriors statement read.

“We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them.

“We’re disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise.”

The statement added: “In lieu of a visit to the White House we have decided that we’ll constructively use our trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion — the values that we embrace as an organisation.”

The Warriors statement came after Trump earlier yesterday wrote on Twitter that an invitation to the Warriors and star player Stephen Curry was withdrawn.