Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr is always quick to excoriate President Trump, but when it comes to the NBA’s appeasement of human rights abuser China, Kerr is suddenly confused on what to think.
Kerr has paraded himself as an outspoken expert on the evils of the Second Amendment, the horror of voting or supporting the GOP, and certainly the scourge that is President Donald Trump. At nearly every press conference, Kerr lapses into polemics about politics and in no uncertain terms, castigates anyone who disagrees with his political view. And the woke NBA thinks he is wonderful.
A recent Guardian article, for instance, lauds Kerr for not sticking to sports. Indeed, as far as the paper was concerned, this hardcore leftist is the “U.S. sport’s voice of reason.”
“No topic seems off limits. No question is too dangerous,” Les Carpenter glowingly wrote for the Guardian last year in praise of Kerr.
Kerr is “fearless about social justice,” he is “powerful” in his speech, and he is “brave.”
That is, until the NBA decided to prostrate itself before a mountain of Chinese money and apologize to China because a member of the league tweeted out support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Then, suddenly, the “brave” Kerr is too confused about all these complicated issues in China — one of the biggest human rights abusers in the world.
On Monday, Kerr was asked what he thought about the NBA’s groveling before the human rights-abusing communist country. Did Kerr have a comment? “Actually I don’t,” he surprisingly said.
“A lot of us don’t know what to make of it,” Kerr replied meekly:
Kerr continued when asked about China: “It’s a really bizarre international story. A lot of us don’t know what to make of it. It’s something I’m reading about like everybody is, but I’m not gonna comment further than that.”
Kerr went on, saying, “What I’ve found is that it’s easy to speak on issues that I’m passionate about and what I feel like I’m well-versed on, and what I’ve found that it makes the most sense to stick to topics that fall in that category. So, I try to keep my comments to those things and so it’s not difficult. It’s more I’m trying to learn.
“My brother-in-law is actually a Chinese history professor,” Kerr concluded, “and I emailed him today to tell me what I should be learning about all this and what’s happening and so I’m trying to learn like everybody else.”
It appears that coach Kerr is more than ready to call Americans racists, homophobes, and haters, and to call for their destruction, but he is uncharacteristically “uninformed” about a country that beats gays, jails political and religious dissenters, murders minorities, and bans free speech for its citizens.
So brave.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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