As it’s just hours until 2024 Election Day, we now republish some of our more scathing past posts on Donald J. Trump. Here is one about Steve Kerr, Stan Van Gundy and Gregg Popovich from November 2016.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning we learned that the first black President in U.S. history will now give way to a new one who is endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. Barack Obama’s now inevitable replacing by Donald Trump as the leader of the free world, will officially be celebrated by the KKK with a parade in North Carolina on December 3rd, according to The Hill.
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The most recently updated popular vote count has Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump by about 1.8 million votes, and there are still many ballots left to be counted in heavily Democratic counties.
Clinton’s popular vote victory is of course fundamentally meaningless, and no matter how many votes she eventually wins by, will ring hollow. The Electoral College, a remnant of the early 19th century created to accommodate the political ambitions of slave-holders according to a Time magazine article, decides the election, not the popular vote.
Trump’s campaign consistently espoused bigotry, intolerance, prejudice, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia and racism. All Trump voters implicitly endorsed those “beliefs” through the act of voting for him.
His election has disgusted and offended much of the country, including some of the National Basketball Association’s leading figures. Many NBA Coaches and players have spoken out since America shocked almost every political pundit and pollster around by electing Trump.
The list includes San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich, winner of five NBA titles, a feat only four other men have ever accomplished.
Poppovich said that Trump’s ascension is disgusting, and it makes him sick to his stomach.
Full transcript via the San Antonio-Express News:
“Right now I’m just trying to formulate thoughts. It’s too early. I’m just sick to my stomach. Not basically because the Republicans won or anything, but the disgusting tenor and tone and all of the comments that have been xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic.
“I live in that country where half of the people ignored all of that to elect someone. That’s the scariest part of the whole thing to me. It’s got nothing to do with the environment and Obamacare, and all of the other stuff. We live in a country that ignored all of those values that we would hold our kids accountable for. They’d be grounded for years if they acted and said the things that have been said in that campaign by Donald Trump.
“I look at the Evangelicals and I wonder, those values don’t mean anything to them? All of those values to me are more important than anybody’s skill in business or anything else because it tells who we are, and how we want to live, and what kind of people we are. That’s why I have great respect for people like Lindsey Graham and John McCain, John Kasich, who I disagree with on a lot of political things, but they had enough fiber and respect for humanity and tolerance for all groups to say what they said about the man.
“That’s what worries me. I get it, of course we want to be successful, we’re all going to say that. Everybody wants to be successful, it’s our country, we don’t want it to go down the drain. But any reasonable person would come to that conclusion, but it does not take away the fact that he used that fear mongering, and all of the comments, from day one, the race bating with trying to make Barack Obama, our first black president, illegitimate. It leaves me wondering where I’ve been living, and with whom I’m living.
“The fact that people can just gloss that over, start talking about the transition team, and we’re all going to be kumbaya now and try to make the country good without talking about any of those things. And now we see that he’s already backing off of immigration and Obamacare and other things, so was it a big fake, which makes you feel it’s even more disgusting and cynical that somebody would use that to get the base that fired up. To get elected. And what gets lost in the process are African Americans, and Hispanics, and women, and the gay population, not to mention the eighth grade developmental stage exhibited by him when he made fun of the handicapped person. I mean, come on. That’s what a seventh grade, eighth grade bully does. And he was elected president of the United States. We would have scolded our kids. We would have had discussions until we were blue in the face trying to get them to understand these things. He is in charge of our country. That’s disgusting.”
A reporter then interrupted him.
“I’m not done,” Popovich said.
“One could go on and on, we didn’t make this stuff up. He’s angry at the media because they reported what he said and how he acted. That’s ironic to me. It makes no sense. So that’s my real fear, and that’s what gives me so much pause and makes me feel so badly that the country is willing to be that intolerant and not understand the empathy that’s necessary to understand other group’s situations. I’m a rich white guy, and I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it. I can’t imagine being a Muslim right now, or a woman, or an African American, a Hispanic, a handicapped person. How disenfranchised they might feel. And for anyone in those groups that voted for him, it’s just beyond my comprehension how they ignore all of that. My final conclusion is, my big fear is — we are Rome.”
I concur 100% with everything Popovich said.
Maybe the second best part of the Popovich remarks was his “‘I’m a rich white guy, and I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it. I can’t imagine….” That’s very telling because rich white males are the only group which won’t be persecuted under the upcoming Trump regime, should he live up, to his campaign promises.
The best part of the Popovich commentary is when a reporter interrupts him, and he then continues on. Only because Popovich, perhaps more than any other coach in professional sports this side of Bill Belichick, is more synonymous with disinterest and distaste for doing media interviews.
Popovich really is a good man though; as is his fellow Western Conference super power head coach Steve Kerr. The man who held the most single season wins in NBA history last year, as well as the NBA title the previous season, also conveyed his disgust with the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.
Steve Kerr — "this is my rant" — for 2+ minutes on the presidential election: "Maybe we should've seen this coming" pic.twitter.com/MJOcSdXxHH
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 10, 2016
Read @warriors' coach @SteveKerr's thoughtful take on #Election2016. I'll never forget seeing so many people I care about cry so hard. pic.twitter.com/4AVLmConUt
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) November 10, 2016
As the New York Daily News points out: “Kerr, Popovich and NBA coaches are emerging as the anti-Ditkas, thoughtful and supportive of the social injustice issues that plague this country and impact their players and willing to talk about it publicly.”
Add Detroit Pistons Coach Stan Van Gundy to the list. In a separate and previous article at this link, we pointed out how Van Gundy expressed the truth, articulating the greater perspective of it all and simply telling it like it truly is.
As Van Gundy pointed out this isn’t even really about politics, it’s instead about decency and tolerance. It’s not Republicanism, or even Conservatism that he’s backlashing against, it’s simple hatred and bigotry.
Also, big time props to Van Gundy for pointing what horrifying hypocrites the Evangelicals truly are.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.