San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, was asked to share his thoughts on the liberal-funded anti-Second Amendment marches that took place on Saturday.
Just before Sunday’s game in Milwaukee, Popovich remarked upon what he thought the March 24 marches meant for the future of the country, but he also went off on our current crop of politicians whom Popovich says are not doing a good job leading the nation.
Well, the future of the country is a pretty big thing. There’s not one event that is going to signal what it’s going to be like in the future. But I can tell you that I’m sure most everybody is going to be unbelievably proud and excited about those students and what they’ve done. Because our politicians have certainly sat on their thumbs and just hidden. To most, it’s almost like a dereliction of duty to watch all these people get killed with guns — in so many different ways, whether it’s nightclubs, or schools, or cities. And it seems that the power and the money are more important than the lives. So to see these teenagers demand this, it takes you back.
Popovich then went on to note that TV is a powerful medium adding that he thinks things might more easily change now that the marches were broadcast all across the world:
You think about it, the civil rights movement didn’t flip or change until people saw things on TV. They saw policemen with fire hoses and dogs biting old black men and women, people being beaten with sticks. Then you get to the Vietnam War, and we’re in it forever, and then what happens? Film starts coming back with arms and legs blown off and coffins, and I can still remember the little girl who was napalmed running down the road. Things change when that happens. And in this one, in this situation, these students are the same way. Images are important. Obviously you can’t put an image on TV of what happened in that classroom, that would be pretty horrifying.
But if you just sit for a moment and imagine those bullets going through those bodies, and what those bodies might have looked like afterwards, how can the president of the country talk about all the things he’s going to do, and then go have lunch with the NRA and change it? It’s just cowardice. A real leader would have been in Washington D.C. this weekend, not at his penthouse at Mar-a-Lago. He would have had the decency to meet with a group, to see what’s going on, and how important it is, and how important our children should be to us. So for all those politicians involved, it’s just a dereliction of duty.
The coach wrapped up with a broadside against our leaders in Washington DC:
They can talk about the age limit, and background checks and all that, but the real discussion is what kind of a country, what kind of a culture do we want? You go back and investigate the second amendment. What does it really mean today? What are we willing to give up for the safety of our children. The people in power don’t want to talk about that. The fact that our president left town, is a real indication of how much he really cares about anything other than feeding his insatiable ego.
Popovich is no stranger to popping off about politics, of course. He is a virulent critic of Republicans and President Donald Trump, and has many times waded into discussions about contemporary politics.
Last September, for instance, Popovich exclaimed that the U.S.A. was an “embarrassment in the world,” by October he was calling Trump a “soulless coward,” and by February he attacked Fox News host Laura Ingraham and called the U.S. a “racist country.”
He also insisted that all white people need to be made “uncomfortable,” because whites are born with inherent advantages.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.