Based on some quotes from Staley taken from the article you linked, I am not sure that it was all about timing. It seems as though she felt snubbed and that had a lot to do with it. She also mentioned "some things" had transpired over the last few months. Was the Kapernick saga one of those things or Steph. Curry declining to go? Personally, I think they should have gone, regardless, and it should have been mandated by the USC administration. They are the only women's basketball national championship team NOT to attend the White House since 1983. Not a good look IMO.
We haven’t gotten an invitation yet and that in itself speaks volumes. We won before those other teams won their championships. I don’t know what else has to happen.”
Staley said at the time she wasn't sure her team, which won the title in April, would go now if invited. The night her squad won the school’s first national championship, the Hall of Famer said the team would go to the White House because “it’s what it stands for. It’s what national champions do.”
That was before “some things,” as Staley put it in September, “transpired over the last few months. I haven’t talked to anyone about it. I got bigger fish to fry than worry about an invitation.”