NBA: ‘Rich as hell’ should give more, says Popovich
Gregg Popovich is just as outspoken about charity as he is about political and social issues.
The San Antonio Spurs coach, who has supported the San Antonio Food Bank, Shoes That Fit (a group that delivered shoes to more than 200 students at an elementary school) and the Innocence Project, offered his simple philosophy about why charitable contributions matter to him.
“Because we’re rich as hell and we don’t need it all, and other people need it,” Popovich said (via ESPN) Tuesday night. “You’re an ass if you don’t give it. Pretty simple.”
Popovich has also contributed to relief efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria and is helping raise money for J/P HRO, which runs relief programs in Haiti, and a coalition of relief organizations in the U.S. and Caribbean. He’s focusing on an auction in which the top bidder and a guest can watch the Spurs play the Lakers on Jan. 11 at the Staples Center.
Still, it’s his comments about politics and U.S. President Donald Trump that usually grab the headlines and have caused him to be inundated with responses that renew his “feeling that something can be done.”
“Just as you would expect: A little bit of both, right? A lot of both,” he said.
“Some responses make you wonder what country you live in, and other responses make you very hopeful. But there’s a lot more hopeful than, ‘My gosh, how did this person come up with this?’ So overall it renews my feeling that something can be done because there are enough people willing to listen and feel and compromise.”
Popovich has called out Trump several times since the Inauguration, saying he had made the U.S. “an embarrassment to the world” and calling him a “soulless coward” when Trump said former presidents had not called the families of military members who had been killed. Popovich’s words carried extra weight, coming from an Air Force Academy graduate who served five years in the military. He added that he tries to read all the responses he gets.
“I try to respond,” he said. “It takes time because there’s a lot of letters. But the only ones I don’t respond to are the ones that are so courageous in their negativity that there’s no address, just comments. That’s hard to respond to.
“But there are people who have responded and disagreed, and say, ‘Why?’ And it’s erudite and intelligible. ‘Yeah, you’ve got a point.’ Those people deserve to be written back. So I try. I probably won’t get them all, but I try.”