Trump’s win draws negative vibe in most NBA quarters
With the Toronto Raptors set to face the Thunder on Wednesday night, much of the talk at shootaround was about the oneman wrecking crew named Russell Westbrook. That makes sense, of course, since Westbrook, a twotime NBA all-star game MVP made the all-league first team last year and is a leading MVP candidate in 2016-17.
But something else also received equal attention — reaction to Donald Trump’s stunning presidential victory on Tuesday night.
While Republicans dot the NBA — most vocally, Charlotte centre Spencer Hawes, who wore a Hillary for prison 2016 shirt on the eve of the election, players and coaches today are largely Democrats. LeBron James, the face of the NBA, even stumped for Clinton in Ohio recently (it didn’t work).
The Raptors didn’t seem pleased with what happened in the election.
“Ah, I’m not about to speak on that, hell nah” league scoring leader DeMar DeRozan said, before adding, as he walked away: “It’s a mockery, it’s a joke.”
Fellow all-star Kyle Lowry bit his tongue a bit more, thinking long and hard before saying, “it wasn’t my decision,” when asked for his opinion of how things turned out.
Lowry did say he wants prominent people to continue to stand up for what they believe in.
“I think athletes and celebrities all over the world, and especially in America, has to make their voice vocal,” Lowry said.
“We have a lot of following, we have children that look up to us and we understand that … putting your voice out there and putting your voice and your mind behind it and pushing for it is always a good thing.”
Lowry doesn’t think Trump winning will dissuade people from speaking out.
“No, I don’t think so, I think it will get the conversation going even more with celebrities and athletes,” he said.
For Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, getting back to basketball was a welcome distraction.
“I’m disappointed but I’m also an American.
“I respect the position of the presidency and whoever it is I’m going to support it,” Casey said. “But I’m disappointed being a Democrat and being for the other side, but at the end of the day, like we asked when Barack Obama was elected, let’s pull behind the president and hopefully that’s what we are going to do as a nation.”
When asked for his thoughts, starting small forward DeMarre Carroll shrugged, before adding: “Hey, my president is God.”
While the election had been going on, some of Carroll’s teammates had been tweeting and alluding to moving to Canada.
“Now I have to like poutine,” tweeted point guard Delon Wright.
Patrick Patterson and Norm Powell tweeted about dual citizenship, with Powell adding a picture of a Canadian flag, prompting Wright to respond: “We was sent there for a reason.”
But the NBA’s biggest backlash came in Detroit, where Pistons head coach and boss Stan Van Gundy absolutely went off.
“We just elected an openly brazen, misogynist leader.
“We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus,” Van Gundy told Pistons beat writers in Phoenix where the team was set to take on the Suns.
“I’m having a hard time being with people. I’m going to walk into this arena tonight and realize that most of these people voted for him.
“Like, s--t, I don’t have any respect for that.”