Gregg Popovich: Black History Month is Important
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich says it is important to celebrate Black History Month even though "we live in a racist country."
Popovich made the comments before San Antonio's game against Utah on Monday.
"I think it's pretty obvious," Popovich said. "The league is made up of a lot of black guys. To honor [Black History Month] and understand it is pretty simplistic. How would you ignore that? But more importantly, we live in a racist country that hasn't figured it out yet. And it's always important to bring attention to it, even if it angers some people. The point is that you have to keep it in front of everybody's nose so that they understand it, that it still hasn't been taken care of, and we have a lot of work to do."
"More importantly, we live in a racist country that hasn't figured it out yet. It's always important to bring attention to it, even if it angers some people. The point is, you have to keep it in front of everybody's nose and let them know it still hasn't been taken care of and we still have a lot of work to do
Popovich has been a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, including calling him a "soulless coward" and also reiterated his stance of how there is still prevalent social injustice and racism in the United States.
"If you were born white, you automatically have a monstrous advantage educationally, economically, culturally in this society," Popovich said. "And all the systemic roadblocks that exist, whether it's in a judicial sense, a neighborhood sense with laws, zoning, education -- we have huge problems in that regard that are very complicated, but take leadership, time and real concern to try to solve. It's a tough one because people don't really want to face it. And it's in our national discourse."
