The Knicks won their first title in 53 years. Their owner already said yes to Trump’s White House.

The New York Knicks won their first championship in 53 years in June, and their owner has already said yes to a victory lap at Donald Trump’s White House. Spike Lee, the team’s most famous fan, wants the players to say no. “He can’t force them!” Lee told Variety, as Fox News and others have reported. “It’s been years since the last NBA team has gone. They’re not going. I hope they don’t go!”

The fight is over who gets to decide. Owner James Dolan said on WFAN radio that the team had received an invitation: “We just did receive an invitation from the White House, which we accepted.” Dolan called Trump “a friend” he has known for 30 years. A White House official said it looks forward to hosting the team “at a date to be determined in the near future.” No date has been set, and it is not clear which players would go.

That matters in a league where most of the players are Black. A White House visit is a photo with a president, and everyone in the frame is read as endorsing him. Champions have skipped the ritual before, starting with the Golden State Warriors in 2017, when Stephen Curry said he was not interested in going. The Knicks would be the first NBA champion to visit Trump’s White House, and the decision was announced by the owner, not the roster.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported that Dolan “has an attitude with players because they don’t want to go to the White House.” That is Smith’s account. It is not a statement from the team, and the players have not described it themselves.

Lee has his own grievance. He blamed Trump’s attendance at Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks’ only loss of the series against the San Antonio Spurs, saying: “That was not just an accident!” The Knicks went on to win the series 4-1.

Republicans see it differently. Republican spokesperson Elizabeth Pipko argued that players should engage with a president even when they disagree with him. That is a fair argument for a player who wants to go. It is not an argument for an owner who tells a player he has to.

Visiting the White House is an honor a player accepts, not a duty an employer assigns. The men who won this title earned the right to decide for themselves, and Dolan should let each one do it. The Knicks play the Wizards in Washington on Dec. 18.