Issues of race hang heavy on Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
Spurs coach says that silence and inaction ‘makes you complicit’
SAN ANTONIO — Gregg Popovich was in his television room one day last week, engaging in what has become his daily ritual of watching the world burn.
On the screen in front of him, a network was recapping the May 25 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which has since sparked a tinderbox of protests across the United States.
At exactly the wrong time — or precisely the right one — Popovich’s 8-year-old granddaughter walked in the room.
“Why does that man have his knee on that man’s neck?”
Recounting the story a few days later on the “Flying Coach” podcast hosted by fellow professional coaches Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll, Popovich said he was at a loss for how to answer.
Did he offer the entire unvarnished truth? A PG version sanitized for 8-year-old ears? Should he turn off the TV entirely? And then how to explain that reaction?
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a problem for me,’ ” Popovich said. “Then I thought, ‘What about a black family? Do you think they have a problem talking to their kids?’ ”
If there was ever a question of how deeply the 71-year-old San Antonio Spurs coach cares about the effects of racial animus in America, one need only consider this: He went on a podcast — an actual podcast! — to talk about it.
Popovich’s reasons for doing so were underscored in what he called the “feeble” conversation with his eavesdropping granddaughter.
By recognizing the sins of America’s past, there is hope to build a better future.
This is what Popovich told Kerr and Carroll he felt upon initially seeing footage of Floyd’s murder:
“I felt just a deep sadness, a deep frustration, but also a horrifying embarrassment,” Popovich said. “As I looked at that officer’s face, with his hand in his pocket and the nonchalance with which he carried on, for an instant it just took all hope away from me.
“For a moment,” Popovich continued, “I’m looking back and thinking, my gosh, (of ) the hoses and dogs in the ’60s and Jim Crow and Rodney King and all the
deaths in between of young black men and women.”
The Floyd killing and ensuing protests were on the minds of players, coaches and executives throughout the NBA last week.
A league that is roughly 75 percent black couldn’t help but suffer acutely.
Popovich’s activism, however, goes beyond the men he coaches.
He grew up in 1960s Merrillville, Ind., a blue-collar steel-mill town on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.
His high school basketball team was all white.
The town of Gary, 15 minutes away by car, was home to a predominantly black population. At a time in our nation’s history when the dogs and hoses were out in other parts of the country, Popovich and his friends mingled with African Americans on the pickup blacktops of Gary.
To Popovich today, the key to
even beginning to address systemic racial injustice in the country is first for white Americans to admit there is a problem.
It’s not enough to simply be not racist, he said on the “Flying Coach” podcast. White Americans must be actively anti-racist.
“It’s not admitting you’re guilty of something on the face,” Popovich said. “But silence or inaction or being oblivious makes you complicit.
“That’s the point a lot of people don’t understand. As long as they are not yelling out the N-word, or they’re not the ones stopping somebody on the street, they’re not in the trucks chasing a young black man down, so that makes them innocent. That’s not the point.”
So what is?
“The point is to be aware of the past, of those centuries of treatment and understanding that emancipation didn’t do a whole lot because it followed with reconstruction and Jim Crow and so on,” Popovich said.
“We’re not going to reach everyone.
This is not an effort to be perfect. But this is an effort to make the country live up to the values and expectations that were espoused in the beginning, some of which were lies for a great number of our citizens.”
Popovich is aware his forays into activism and non-basketball discussions can be a turnoff for some segments of Spurs fans. He acknowledges others in San Antonio share a different opinion.
Clearly, some were less enthused about an interview Popovich granted to The Nation website early last week that described President Donald Trump as a “fool,” a “stooge” and “a deranged idiot.”
In contrast, his 67-minute podcast discussion with Kerr and Carroll only briefly dipped into overtly political territory.
Under Popovich, an openness for discussion and an awareness of the broader world have become an ingrained part of the Spurs’ culture.
Past guest speakers to the team have included Dr. Cornel West
and former Olympian and activist John Carlos.
Sometimes, Popovich will recommend books for players to read. Or players will recommend books for him.
On the “Flying Coach” podcast, Popovich reflected to his earliest days of coaching, at the Air Force Academy prep school from 197376. He described himself then as a singularly focused “wild man.”
“We’d do the drills until their tongues were hanging out — they’d have to be perfect,” Popovich said. “Then practice was over, and see you later. As time went on, you start to realize that’s really a shallow way to live.”
Popovich credits former Golden State coach Don Nelson, under whom he served as an assistant from 1992-94, for making him see the value of forging interpersonal relationships with players.
“You move on and realize how much more meaningful (it is) if you actually know about that player, where you can laugh with him,” Popovich said. “Or you can get on him but he knows you’re going to put your arm around him after practice. And he can say, ‘This guy’s crazy, but I know he cares.’ ”
When it comes to moving the race conversation out of the locker room and into the public square, the three coaches agreed an overhauling of the education system would be helpful.
Kerr, who coaches the Golden State Warriors, mentioned the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
He had never heard of it until a player — Andre Iguodala — brought it up a few years ago.
“How do you hold someone responsible if they’re just totally ignorant, if they have no idea what has gone on?” Popovich said. “That’s why this pressure has to be constant by white people. To begin it as early as possible is probably important.”
In one ham-fisted but important conversation with an 8-yearold last week, Popovich attempted to do just that.