Riots affect former Saint
Former Siena coach has game postponed by curfew
Former Siena men’s basketball coach Jamion Christian is used to seeing protests.
Now in his second year as head coach at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Christian has an office located two blocks from the White House and the Lincoln Memorial and about a mile from the U.S. Capitol.
“There’s a protest going on almost every day,” Christian said in a phone interview from his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday night. “There’s a protest outside the White House almost every single day, at the Lincoln Memorial almost every single day. There’s a lot of protests that come in like this routinely, so for us, it was like, hey, this could be like the other rallies we’ve had here. So we weren’t anticipating it being any different.”
Except this one was. Much different. Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump breached the Capitol building shortly after 1 p.m. to protest Congress’ count of electoral votes to
confirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Some clashed with law enforcement and smashed windows. One woman was shot and later died.
Washington, D.C., declared a 6 p.m. curfew, which caused the postponement of George Washington’s home game against the University of Massachusetts, scheduled to tip off at the same time.
“The curfew was definitely part of it, but we had already been having the conversation whether to have the game or not,” Christian said. “I think just trying to do what’s best for our players and our programs and (Umass players and coaches) were able to get on the plane pretty quickly and get out of here. I’m happy for them, they’re able to get out and be safe. We all just want what’s best for our student-athletes, and it seems like today it was a daunting task to try to ask these guys to per
form under these kinds of circumstances.”
Umass head coach Matt Mccall has a staff that includes assistant Lucious Jordan, a Colonie and Ualbany graduate.
Christian said he didn’t ask his players, including Shaker High graduate and former Siena player Sloan Seymour, if they wanted to play.
“Our guys love to play,” Christian said. “But we didn’t ask them. Times like this, leadership needs to lead.”
Christian said he realized something was wrong after the team had its morning shootaround.
“At about 1:30, my phone started buzzing like crazy and all these sirens started going off all over the place,” he said. “We were just trying to figure out what was going on. … We’d be cautioned by GW to be careful with all the protests going on two days before and last night and this morning. Just personally, I thought it was scary.”
Christian called it a “sad day,” the kind of thing you’d expect to happen in
another country.
“We all love our country and respect our country,” he said. “This country has allowed us to become what we are right now. You’re doing the job you’ve always wanted to do. I’m going the job I’ve always wanted to do. So it’s a great country. It’s just a sad day when we feel like our democracy is being interrupted. We all understand protesting. I think we all respect that. We understand that right to do that. But a woman died today.”
Christian coached for one season at Siena in 2018-19 before leaving for George Washington. He said his players were secure in their dorms on Wednesday night with extra security. He planned to speak with them at greater length on Thursday about Wednesday’s violence.
“We’ll probably have some great discussions about the importance of being able to talk to people with different views and being able to make sure things never get to this point,” he said.