San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called Donald Trump “delusional” and said the United States is “an embarrassment to the world” during the team’s press day Monday in a speech to reporters that called out white privilege.
“Our country is an embarrassment in the world,” Popovich told reporters. He said that Trump thought that players locking arms during the National Anthem was a sign of “honor” for the flag, which is “delusional, but it’s what we have to live with.” Players have been kneeling or locking arms during the anthem as a sign of protest against racial inequality in the country. Former San Fransisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the silent protest during last year’s season.
Popovich said Americans have “a choice: We can continue to bounce our heads off the walls with his conduct, or we can decide the institutions of our country are more important, people are more important, [the] decent America we all have and want is more important. Get down to business at the grassroots level and do what we have to do.”
The coach went on to address race as the “elephant in the room” and called out white privilege.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich: Time to decide "the decent America we all thought we had and want is more important" than Pres. Trump's conduct. pic.twitter.com/ImnHDOP43b
— ABC News (@ABC) September 25, 2017
“Obviously, race is the elephant in the room, and we all understand that unless it is talked about constantly, it is not going to get better,” he said. “There has be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change, whether it is the LGBT movement, women’s suffrage, race, doesn’t matter. People have to be made to feel uncomfortable; especially white people. We still have no clue of what being born white means,” said Popovich.
“Because you were born white, you have advantages systemically, culturally, psychology there,” Popovich went on. “They have been built up for hundreds of years. Many people can’t look at it. [It] can’t be something on their plate on a daily basis. People want their status quo. People don’t want to give it up. Until it’s given up, it’s not going to be fixed.”
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Watch Popovich’s comments in the video above.