In a video released by the San Antonio Spurs that he coaches, Gregg Popovich spoke with emotion about the death of George Floyd and the anti-racist protests carried out by the African-American community against police violence in the United States.
“We must not let anything pass. Our country is in trouble and race is the fundamental reason.” Gregg Popovich joins numerous anti-racism and anti-police violence protests in the United States. The San Antonio Spurs coach was moved by the situation in his country, in a video released Saturday by the American basketball franchise.
“We’ve all seen books, and you see black people hanging from the trees. How about you… are stunned. But we just seen him again. I never thought I’d see this, with my own eyes, in real time,” Gregg Popovich said in front of the camera, referring to the death of George Floyd during a violent arrest by white police officers.
“It’s got to be us that speak truth to power, that call it out no matter the consequences. We have to not let anything go. Our country is in trouble and the basic reason is race.”#SpursVoices pic.twitter.com/uTyOIzGnTg
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) June 6, 2020
Shocked by this “lynching”
“I think I’m embarrassed as a white person to know that this can happen. To witness a lynching,” Gregg Popovich also commented. He said he was revolted by the “nonchalant and casual” attitude of Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter who caused the victim to endure more than eight minutes of torment by thrusting his knee on the neck.
The legendary 71-year-old coach urges people to put an end to the “burden” worn for “400 years” by the African-American community: “It’s like the neighborhood where you know there’s a dangerous crossroads, you know something’s going to happen one day and nobody’s doing anything. Then a young child is killed and a stop sign is set up. Without wanting to be too political, we have a lot of stop signs that need to be put on quickly because our country is in trouble.”
