INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich called on President
Donald Trump to be more inclusive Monday.
Popovich, who graduated from the Air Force Academy, expressed disgust over
Trump’s refusal to meet with groups he “disparaged” during the campaign.
He was in Indianapolis for his team’s first meeting of the season with the NBA’s
Indiana Pacers.
Popovich was asked about how his upbringing near the heavily populated
African-American community of Gary, Indiana, has helped him address substantive
political topics with his players in this strongly partisan postelection
America.
“We all hope President Trump is successful, we hope he does some good things for
everyone,” Popovich said. “He didn’t start the presidency by mollifying any
groups he disparaged during the campaign. He didn’t say anything about women, or
black people, Hispanic people, LGBT people, handicap people – he acted like it
never happened. So, that willingness to do whatever was necessary to get elected
to say and act the way he did, I thought it was unacceptable. Really disgusting.
Even people who voted for him can see that, but for some reason they feel they
can ignore that and forgive him. His personality – the inability to get over
himself – informs his words and his decisions, and that’s what’s scary.”
The 68-year-old Popovich has won five NBA championships with San Antonio and
went into Monday’s game ranked No. 7 in NBA history in career wins with 1,130.
He is a three-time winner of the NBA’s coach of the year award and has coached
the All-Star team four times.
