Trump ‘going down a slippery slope’

Raptors condemn enacted travel ban

The Toronto Raptors’ defensive woes took a decided back seat on Monday as first the team’s marquee player, then the head coach and finally the team president went on the offensive targeting U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

To a man, no one was holding his tongue although it’s safe to say Kyle Lowry summed up the collective opinion most succinctly.

“I think it’s bulls—t,” point guard and Philly native Lowry said setting the tone for the day. “I think it’s absolute bulls—t. Our country is the country of the home of the free. For that to happen is bulls—t. I won’t get into it too deeply but personally I think it’s bulls—t.”

Lowry was then asked if he would repeat his stance without the profanities for the cameras in the scrum.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Y’all have to bleep that out. That’s how I feel about it. If you use it, you use it. I’m sure you can bleep it out.”

Trump’s ban, which began Friday, is a full three-month ban on travel to the U.S. from any of seven predominantly Muslim countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

There is also a 120-day suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

It has been met with protests around the world and throughout the NBA, a league which prides itself on its global footprint and worldwide reach not to mention inclusiveness of all people.

Lowry was followed by Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, who steered clear of the profanities but echoed his point guard’s opinion.

“I don’t like it,” Casey said of the ban. “I think it’s something that, our nation, the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. Everybody’s there from somewhere else. And we have to be careful. I’m sure there’s certain situations, and should be, of people who shouldn’t be in the country, or this country, or whatever country. But just to put a blanket ban over a lot of Muslim countries that we have no issues with, we have to be careful.”

Casey went on to compare the current political climate to something he experienced as a child growing up in the American South.

“It’s scary because it kind of reminds you about what happened back in the ’60s, when I was growing up,” Casey, a native of Morganfield, Ky., said.

“Even though it’s different issues, it resembles that in a lot of different ways. A little bit more sophisticated, but it’s similar. And it’s a slippery slope. For every action, there’s a cause and effect and a reaction by other people, so we have to be careful. Again, I’m a U.S. citizen, a proud U.S. citizen, but we have to be careful how we’re handling our business in the States.”

Masai Ujiri, the team president chose his words carefully, but spoke about the emotional toll and the message such a ban has had on his life’s work beyond the basketball court.

He began by expressing his concerns for the people affected by the tragedy in Quebec City, where a lone gunman killed six and wounded 19 others in a shooting at a mosque on Sunday night.

Ujiri makes his living in the NBA, but his passion beyond basketball is helping youth around the world grow and providing them opportunities, often through basketball, that they might never have.

Trump’s ban works directly against Ujiri’s message he takes with his around the world.

“I think it’s just ridiculous what’s going on out there,” Ujiri said.

“We had plans to do a basketball camp in Sudan. When you go and do those things, or even in Basketball Without Borders we have kids that come from all over the world.

“What does that mean? Are we lying to those kids when we say we are giving them hope, or teaching them or going to help them grow or give them opportunity, we’re outright lying to them now? I just don’t get it. It’s mind-boggling. I just don’t get it.”

Ujiri though refuses to let the actions of anyone else, even the President of the United States, derail his own efforts.

“It doesn’t affect anything that I’m doing, honestly,” he said.

“It will not affect one thing that I’m doing. I’ll go wherever I want to go and do whatever I have to do. If it entails a basketball camp, where we want to go do it, it won’t stop it one second.”

Lowry, like so many others in the wake of Trump’s radical approach, was left shaken.

“I have always been taught to treat everyone the same,” he said. “It’s a difficult time for my country right now, and it’s sad,” he said.