Pop won’t hold back, uncomfortable or not
SAN ANTONIO — Gregg Popovich can see you now. Rolling your eyes, crinkling your nose, fidgeting in your seat. Some of you started cursing before you even got past the headline.
You wish he would just give it a rest with this political nonsense and stick to basketball, snowflake. You want to tell him to shut up and coach. You never asked to be part of this conversation, and you dang sure never asked for his opinion.
And that is exactly why he refuses to stop giving it to you.
“The discussion has to take place,” Popovich said Monday. “People have to be made to feel uncomfortable. And especially white people.”
Hoo boy, you’re mad now, aren’t you? Where does this guy get off, telling you how to feel? Shouldn’t he be more
worried about beating the Warriors?
Besides, what did you ever do that you need to apologize for? After all, you didn’t commit any acts of police brutality. You didn’t stack the legal system against anyone. You didn’t create any unfairness in the housing market, or in education. You’re not a white supremacist.
You’re just a normal American who wishes everyone could get along, so you can get back to reading about Tony Parker’s quadriceps and Kawhi Leonard’s jump shot in the sports section. Is that so much to ask? Popovich hears your request. Over the past 10 months, he has heard it over and over again. He knows you don’t want to talk about racial injustice.
Discussion necessary
And yet this basketball coach thinks you should, anyway.
“Obviously, race is the elephant in the room, and we all understand that,” Popovich said. “But unless it is talked about, constantly, it’s not going to get better. People get bored, ‘Ohhh, is it that again? They’re pulling the race card. Why do we have to talk about that again?’ Well, because it’s uncomfortable.”
There you go, rolling your eyes again. Popovich said all of this at the Spurs’ media day Monday, in response to questions about a weekend of player protests in the NFL. He did not specify any ways his team is planning to participate in a similar display, but he said he would support his players if they choose to do so.
But come on, this is not the 1960s anymore, right? At least back then, you argue, everyone could see those protests had some substance to them.
Popovich, 68, was in the Air Force Academy in those days, so he should be able to see the difference between then and now, shouldn’t he? Well, maybe he remembers something else.
Maybe he remembers the national poll conducted by Louis Harris & Associates in 1966, when 85 percent of white respondents said civil rights demonstrations hurt “the advancement of Negro rights” more than they helped.
Maybe he remembers that in August 1963, a Gallup poll showed 60 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of the March on Washington. Maybe he remembers that in May 1961, another Gallup poll showed 61 percent of Americans disapproved of the “Freedom Riders.”
Maybe he understands these acts always are unpopular.
“Whether it’s the LGBT movement, women’s suffrage, race, it doesn’t matter,” Popovich said.
Still, even if you concede that point, you wish he would leave those fights to someone else. You think sports should be an escape. You watch games, in part, to avoid reflecting on any of this.
Pushing the debate
But Popovich insists on reminding you of it, anyway.
“We still have no clue of what being born white means,” Popovich said. “It’s hard to sit down and decide that yes, it’s like you’re at the 50-meter mark in a 100-meter dash. You’ve got that kind of a lead, yes, because you were born white. You have advantages that are systemically, culturally, psychologically there. And they’ve been built up and cemented for hundreds of years. But many people can’t look at it that way, because it’s too difficult.”
Did that change your mind about anything? Almost certainly not. Popovich knows you’re dug in, and he knows that every time he opens his mouth, he risks losing you forever.
But if the alternative is keeping quiet, and letting you feel comfortable again?
For Popovich, that isn’t much of a decision at all.