Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr hits out at Donald Trump for outburst about 'Take a Knee' NFL protests
President Trump has rescinded his invitation to the Warriors to visit the White House
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Your support makes all the difference.Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has criticised Donald Trump after the President of the United States of America rescinded an invitation to the NBA champions to visit the White House, and asked why he defended “neo-Nazi chanting hate slogans” but attacked the players in the NFL that were protesting against racial inequality.
Dozens of NFL players either knelt or sat down during the national anthem on Sunday, while the entire rosters of the Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers remained in the tunnel – with the exception of former serviceman and three-time Afghanistan tourist Alejandro Villanueva, who stood in front of the tunnel with his hand across his chest.
The mass protests, which also included more than 20 players kneeling at Wembley Stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars played the Baltimore Ravens, were in response to President Trump’s controversial comments aimed at former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other protesting players in the league, who Trump said should be sacked.
“How about the irony of, ‘Free speech is fine if you’re a neo-Nazi chanting hate slogans, but free speech is not allowed to kneel in protest?'” Kerr said on Sunday.
“No matter how many times a football player says, ‘I honour our military, but I’m protesting police brutality and racial inequality,’ it doesn’t matter. Nationalists are saying, ‘You’re disrespecting our flag.’ Well, you know what else is disrespectful to our flag? Racism. And one’s way worse than the other.”
Kerr’s response comes after President Trump wrote on Twitter at the weekend that he was no longer inviting Warriors star player Stephen Curry to the White House for the traditional invitation that is laid out to championship-winning American teams.
Curry took a considered approach with his response, claiming that he believed such a rash outburst is “kind of beneath [what] a leader of a country” should do, but Kerr did not hold back in sending a message to President Trump.
“The idea of civil discourse with a guy who is tweeting and demeaning people and saying the things he’s saying is sort of far-fetched,” Kerr added. “Can you picture us really having a civil discourse with him?”
“It was an actual chance to talk to the president. After all, he works for us. He’s a public servant. He may not be aware of that, but he is a public servant, right? So maybe as NBA champions, as people in a prominent position, we could go in and say, ‘This is what’s bothering us, what can we do about this?'”
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