But there are so many others. An appearance with this deeply unpopular president, a photo-op that Trump would inevitably exploit as an endorsement, would tarnish the communal joy felt by so many during and since the team’s historic run.

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Once, White House invitations for sports teams were an easy gig for all involved. Presidents got team jerseys emblazoned with their names, and players got to smile and laugh with the most powerful person in the world. It was a harmless championship perk.

That changed when Trump became president.

During Trump’s first term, six members of the New England Patriots skipped the team’s White House visit after their 2017 Super Bowl win. Some directly called out the president’s rhetoric and policies.

Not counting the Knicks, there have been four NBA championship teams during Trump’s two presidencies — the Golden State Warriors (two championships), the Toronto Raptors, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. None have visited a Trump White House.

“Because of the differences that exist in the country, the president made it really, really difficult for us to honor that institution,” Steve Kerr, the Warriors’ coach and an outspoken Trump critic, said in 2017 after his team’s championship. “Our differences in terms of our team and organization’s values are so dramatically different. I’m talking in terms of inclusion, civil discourse, and dignity. It’s hard for us. Every day we’re seeing the things he’s saying.”

In a petty tweet, Trump rescinded his invitation.

From federal immigration agents behaving as an unchecked paramilitary force to a president more concerned with building self-aggrandizing monuments than addressing soaring gas and grocery prices, Trump 2.0 has been exponentially worse than the first Trump term.

In fact, the Knicks probably would have declined and moved on already if not for James Dolan, the team’s owner. He’s a longtime Trump pal, a billionaire who backs ICE and data centers, and a surveillance network fanatic just like the president. Dolan would probably like nothing more than to curry favor with Trump by bringing his team to the White House.

But so many of these players represent everything Trump despises, especially racial and ethnic diversity. For example, OG Anunoby, who made The Tip-In Heard ‘Round The World in Game 4 of the Finals, was born in London, the son of Nigerian immigrants. Karl-Anthony Towns’s mother was Dominican and his father is Black. Jose Alvarado is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent. Their head coach, Mike Brown, is Black.

Trump craves the optics of surrounding himself with his hometown team (though most of his fellow New Yorkers really dislike him), and using Black and brown men as cover for policies that overwhelmingly target and harm Black and brown people.

The Knicks shouldn’t hand him the PR coup. And they should be wary of the “Trump curse,” which seems to have befallen several athletes and teams Trump embraces. In May, Jaxson Dart, the New York Giants quarterback, introduced Trump at a rally. Last month, he suffered a season-ending knee injury. In July, Trump pressured FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, to overturn a red card suspension of Folarin Balogun, Team USA’s best player in the World Cup. The team lost its next match, which ended its tournament run.

This month, for the first time since 1973 — when Trump garnered his first headlines after he was sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent apartments to Black people — the Knicks will start their season as defending champions. That still-unaccepted invitation could become a distraction when it shouldn’t be.

Brown, the Knicks’ coach, told ESPN last week that a White House visit is “something that our guys, or the organization, is internally discussing and, you know, whatever we decide to do, we’ll all do together.”

Team unity and the love of their fans helped the Knicks achieve what many thought they could never could — bringing an NBA championship back to New York. Other than back-to-back titles, the only thing better than “Knicks in 5” would be a resounding “No thanks” to a Trump White House visit.

Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com.