The Las Vegas Aces are champions again, but this time their victory lap will not include Washington’s most familiar sports tradition.
The team confirmed it did not receive a White House invite after winning the 2025 WNBA championship, according to USA TODAY. The Aces also considered visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture during their July 22 trip to Washington, D.C., to play the Mystics, but scheduling conflicts kept that alternate plan from moving forward.
That is what makes this story bigger than one missed photo op. The Aces did everything a champion is supposed to do. They swept the Phoenix Mercury in four games, won Game 4 by a score of 97-86, and secured their third WNBA title in four seasons. A’ja Wilson led Las Vegas with 31 points in the clincher and was named Finals MVP, adding another major moment to one of the most dominant stretches in recent WNBA history.
The White House piece matters because the Aces had been there before. After winning the 2022 WNBA title, Las Vegas visited the White House in August 2023, where Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the celebration. President Joe Biden was not at that ceremony because he was away on a family vacation
That first visit also came after public pressure. When Biden congratulated the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights for winning the Stanley Cup and called them the “first major professional franchise in such a proud American city,” Wilson responded online with the now-pointed question: “When is our White House Visit because…”.
By 2024, the tone looked different. Biden and Harris hosted the Aces after their 2023 WNBA championship, and Harris praised the team directly, saying, “You simply inspire people across our nation and around the world.”
Now, after the 2025 title, there is no repeat moment. The Trump administration has not hosted a WNBA or NBA championship team during this current term, though other champions have made White House visits. Trump hosted the Philadelphia Eagles after their Super Bowl LIX win, and the Florida Panthers visited after winning the 2025 Stanley Cup.
The larger history shows why the Aces’ missing invite stands out. Biden hosted the 2020 WNBA champion Seattle Storm in 2021, marking the first NBA or WNBA White House visit since Barack Obama hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. During Obama’s presidency, multiple WNBA champions were also honored, including the Phoenix Mercury and Minnesota Lynx.
The conversation around women athletes and White House recognition has already been heated this year. After the U.S. women’s hockey team won Olympic gold, Trump said he would “probably be impeached” if he did not invite them too. The team later declined a State of the Union invitation, citing scheduling conflicts, and Flavor Flav announced a Las Vegas event to celebrate women athletes.
So for the Aces, the story is simple: another championship, another banner, another dynasty-level season. But this time, the celebration stops short of the White House.
