Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is urging those who oppose the Trump administration to steer clear of personal attacks on his staff because that won't fix what the NBA legend calls a "national crisis."
"Because so many Americans wake up screaming about the declining state of our country, naturally they want to scream at those responsible. The way you'd scream at a parent you just walked in on cheating on your other parent, realizing that this will result in the destruction of your family," the NBA legend and cultural ambassador for the U.S. under President Barack Obama, writes in Tuesday's Guardian.
"But our raised voices must do more than release our frustrations — they have to join a growing chorus that effects change."
The 7-foot-2 court great, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks, referred to the public shaming of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was booed at Yankee Stadium, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was asked to leave a restaurant by the owner and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was a heckled at a Mexican eatery.
"While part of me is pleased to see these morally abusive people confronted by their victims, this is not the best way to achieve the goal of national reform and reclaim our hope for America," Abdul-Jabbar writes.
"We must focus on the policies and the damage they are doing to our country, our rights, and our future."
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