A trio of NBA coaches – Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich, and Stan Van Gundy – have become three of the sports world’s leading commenters on race and politics. Ever since the rise of Donald Trump, the trio have decided not to #StickToSports, and instead have spoken poignantly on current events.
On Thursday, Popovich was asked about what Black History Month means to him. The most poignant quote was his highlighted section in the tweet below on privilege in America. After saying that we cannot stop talking about race because “there’s a lot more work to do,” Popovich said, “When you talk about opportunity, it’s not about ‘Well if you lace up your shoes and you work hard, you can have the American dream.’ That’s a bunch of hogwash.”
“If you were born white, you automatically have a monstrous advantage educationally, economically, culturally in this society,” Popovich continued. “And all the systemic roadblocks that exist, whether it’s in a judicial sense, or a neighborhood sense with laws, zoning, education, we have huge problems in that regard that are very complicated, but take leadership, time, and real concern to try to solve. And it’s a tough one, because people don’t really want to face it.”
Listen: I asked Gregg Popovich what #blackhistorymonth means to him, and once again, he spoke #Spurs #NBA https://t.co/gH9urn2hYU
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) February 3, 2017
Additionally, Popovich decided to discuss some of his feelings on Trump. Namely, Popovich discussed how revolted he was over Trump’s attempts to prove that “We have a president of the United States who spent four or five years disparaging and trying to illegitimize our president. And we know that was a big fake, but still felt for some reason it had to be done.”
Popovich hasn’t been shy about his feelings towards Trump, and this again showed that he’s willing and able to speak pointedly about the President and race relations in the United States. He’s 68 and is perhaps the best basketball coach of all-time, but if President Trump happened, who’s to say that we can’t get President Pop?
Okay, he probably would rather do almost anything other than be POTUS, but I suppose crazier things have happened.
