Wednesday’s events in Washington D.C. struck a chord with coaches throughout the NBA.
Supporters of president Donald Trump stormed the United States capitol as a joint session of Congress prepared to officially certify Joe Biden as the country’s next president. The events captured the country’s attention for much of the day.
That said, the NBA and NBPA reportedly had “no formal discussions” about postponing any of the 11 games on Wednesday’s slate.
Several NBA coaches weighed in on the events in Washington D.C. ahead of their respective games. 76ers head coach Doc Rivers got particularly emotional ahead of Philadelphia’s game against the Washington Wizards, and he didn’t hold back while delivering his assessment.
“It’s pretty disturbing and sad,” Rivers said during his pregame video press conference, via Sports Illustrated. “What’s it not, is I keep hearing ‘This attack on democracy.’ It’s not … Democracy will prevail. It always does. It shows a lot though. When you saw protests in the summer, you saw the riots or more the police, the national guard, and the army. And then you see this and you saw nothing. It basically proves the point about a privileged life in a lot of ways.”
“I’ll say it because I don’t think a lot of people want to — could you imagine today if those were all Black people storming into the Capitol and what would’ve happened? So, that to me is a picture that’s worth 1,000 words for all of us to see and probably something for us to reckon with again. No police dogs turned on people. No billy clubs hitting people. People being peacefully escorted out of the Capitol. So, it shows you can disperse a crowd peacefully, I guess would be one thing. It’s a sad day in a lot of ways. Not good for our country more across the borders that people see this. But it’s a part of who we are and so we have to solve it.”
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens called the situation “sad” ahead of Boston’s game against the Miami Heat.
“I think we all hope that the people we elect to lead us are supposed to be modeling leadership will do so in a way that’s motivated by serving others by showing compassion, by acting gracefully,” Stevens said, via WBZ-TV’s Joe Giza. “And instead, we elected a president, who luckily is on his way out, and others that have not shown that kind of grace. It’s been consistent. And they’ve just operated at a win-at-all-costs attitude.
“… I’ve always thought if you operate with a win-at-all-costs attitude it’s going to be a pretty unfulfilling ending. And in this situation, a disgraceful ending. And so, I’m looking forward to two weeks from now, as I know a lot of people are too.”
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said his team was captivated by Wednesday’s events. He noted how there’s a sense of frustration among them.
“It’s really disturbing,” Spoelstra said, via 790 The Ticket’s Brendan Tobin. “We didn’t talk about it formally as a group, but everybody is talking about it. The TV’s on in the training room and all the coaches’ offices. We just can’t believe what we’re seeing. It’s been just a tough string of events — and even with the Jacob Blake ruling (in August), that was really disheartening.”
Spoelstra isn’t sure if players will take any action at some point before, during or after Wednesday’s game, but said he’d support it if they did.
“We haven’t had an opportunity to discuss it, but we are fully behind the players whatever we choose to do.”
