San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has some strong opinions about athletes who protest during the national anthem.
During the NBA's media day, Popovich said that he supports athletes who protest the anthem and hopes it will lead to change. “I absolutely understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, and I respect their courage for what they’ve done. The question is whether it’ll do any good or not, because change really seems to happen through political pressure,” USA Today reported Popovich as saying.
Popovich also said that he hopes the issue will remain “fresh” in the current news cycle and that it’s up to each individual on his team how they want to handle the anthem once the NBA regular season starts.
“My players are engaged citizens who are fully capable of understanding what their values are. ... Whatever actions may or may not be taken are their decisions, and I’m not going to tell anyone ahead of time that if they don’t do A, B, and C, they’re going to be gone or traded. I think that’s ignorant.”
The My San Antonio blog also reported that Popovich did not characterize the anthem protests as disrespectful of the military, as some others have done. “With Kaepernick, a pretty good group of people immediately thought he was disrespecting the military. ... In fact, he was able to do what he did because of what the military does for us. Most thinking people understand that.”
Popovich also lamented the lack of civility currently among politicians and citizens. The NBA currently has a rule that players must stand for the national anthem, according to CBS Sports.
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