Sporting giants are on the front line of setting the cultural tone and they should be praised when they raise their heads above the parapet
Gregg Popovich began with an apology. “I don’t think my voice is that important,” replied the San Antonio Spurs coach when asked his views on the US election. But then, over the course of six impassioned minutes, one of the greatest coaches in the NBA history sank the verbal equivalent of multiple three-pointers from mid-court. “I’m sick to my stomach,” he sighed, his voice now quivering with anger and a deepening anguish. “Not because the Republicans won but the disgusting tenor and tone and all of the comments that have been xenophobic, homophobic, racist and misogynistic.”
The beat reporter tried to change tack. “I’m not done,” Popovich replied, politely but firmly. And he wasn’t. He attacked Trump supporters, pondered how “disenfranchised” women, gay and disabled people, Muslims and other minorities would be feeling, called Trump an “eighth-grade bully” and expressed his fears for America’s future in historical-lyrical terms. “My final conclusion is, my big fear is – we are Rome.”
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