Joe Biden welcomes 2024's NBA champions to the White House

Joe Biden, in his final months as 46th President of the United States, has carried on with the tradition that started over six decades ago, and has received the current NBA champions at the White House: the Boston Celtics.

Biden told Celtics players and press welcomed at the White House that Biden's code name in secret service is 'Celtic', due to his Irish ascendance.

Biden also praised Celtics, the franchise with the most NBA titles in history, 18 titles.

Biden particularly praised coach Joe Mazzulla, who at 36 years old (35 when he won the title) is the second youngest basketball manager since Bill Russell. "I told him I used to be the youngest and now I'm the oldest", joked Biden, who once was one of the youngest US senators and now will retire as US oldest president ever. "I liked being the youngest better".

The first time a US president welcomed the NBA winners at the White House was in 1963, when Russell (also from Boston Celtics) met with John F. Kennedy.

During Donald Trump's first presidency (2017-2020) Golden State Warriors won twice, and Los Angeles Lakers won once. Neither wanted to go meet Trump (in 2019 it was Toronto Raptors who won, and they did visit Justin Trudeau).