Can Steve Kerr be the anti-Trump fire in the world of sports?

Advertising policy

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has finally seen enough. After a team's play-in game with the Memphis Grizzlies, he arrived at a postgame press conference wearing a Harvard Basketball T-shirt. Kerr changed the wardrobe change as a precursor to the Trump administration's threat to put a university that would place nearly 150 years ago at government acceptance if they wanted billions of dollars in federal funds. Unlike Columbia, Harvard, the country's most well-known law firm, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and many other August agencies, decided to refuse to kiss Trump's Mafia Pinky Ring after making some concessions. Before asking questions about Steph Curry's thumb and Jonathan Kuminga's benching, Kerr said: “I believe in academic freedom. I think it's important that all our institutions can handle their business in the way they want their business to be, Harvard.

Kerr has a history of opposing right-wing dictatorship. He joined his leader and fellow coach Greg Popovich during the first Trump administration, speaking out with the president, and letting him hear what he early saw as a threat to democracy and decency. But as Coach Pop is recovering from a stroke (he's in repairs!), Kerr was quiet during this second, much more vicious and openly fascist Trump administration. He said nothing and was involved almost the entire league. Players who were extremely open during Trump I have chosen to be silent so far.

When talking to players, I identified three reasons why they weren't publicly criticizing Trump. The first is physical safety for both yourself and your family. No professional athlete is as exposed as NBA or WNBA basketball players. If fans attack a court, no player wants to keep an eye on smuggled weapons. The second reason is that unlike 2020, players don't think the league has a back systematically. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the franchise owner, who are considered more progressive than their NFL counterparts, are currently compliant with or addicted to the administration's objectives of the Oligarcharch. If a player speaks without organizational support, I'm also afraid of references to slang who was shot dead and, of course, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was banished from his job due to his opposition to racist police violence, as one retired player told me “Kapped.”

The third reason is that it makes me feel sick at the idea of ​​putting generational wealth at risk. Not to mention 2016, compared to 2020, salaries exploded. Today, a nine-figure contract deserves a mid-level star yawn. This is the result of a bulging aired right package for the addictive economy of streaming services and gambling apps. There's more money than ever, and that means more risk. Why compete for player power to influence the league direction when you can afford to be part of a group that can buy a team? It was unprecedented by the previous generation and is now a goal for some top-end players.

Faced with this, Kerr rediscovered his voice. Of course, Kerr has a different background from your typical NBA coach. His father, Dr. Malcolm Kerr, was president of the American University in Beirut. Dr. Kerr believed that Western racism, which challenges education, understanding and challenges, would help bring justice and peace to the community. This poses a threat and he is killed by two assassins. Group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. If he was not killed, Dr. Kerr would be widely known today as a Middle Eastern research scholar. Instead, the Middle Eastern Research Association, an academic organization of over 2,700 academics, will honor the annual award for the best paper after Dr. Malcolm Kerr. This same Middle Eastern Studies Association has denounced the Israeli genocide in Gaza on “as strong as possible conditions.”

This is Steve Kerr stock. He stands up racism at home and abroad, and as a right-wing dictator he faces “bullies.” Now the question is whether some players and coaches have something to say, especially when they enter the playoff season in the NBA. This is a league where popularity has been built and continues to be built, and is surprising by black players, players who have spoken about the issue of racism in the past. In 2020, they took a strike after Jacob Blake police were shot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Supporting Trump's police violence, attacking federal black employees, erasing black history in schools, and parasite-fed Trump's bottom-fed intentions like Chris Luffo, overturning the Civil Rights Act of 1964, don't lack the position players should take. Whether or not that happens is an unresolved question, but it always starts with one person. Courage may be contagious, but we need zero patients. Last time it was coach pop. Now it's Coach Kerr. Throughout these playoffs we will see whether his words marked the beginning of political contagion, or whether he is segregated by skittish sports media and awful leagues.