Gregg Popovic speaking on gun control in the United States

During the league’s continued controversy with China a few years ago, Popovich was the first to praise NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for defending the freedom of speech.

NBA:

Yesterday night, during the press conference before the season’s regular-season closing against the Dallas Mavericks, Popovich, coach of the Spurs for the past 27 years, ignored chatters about his retirement and singled out GOP politicians such as Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Jim Jordan for their alleged inactivity.

Quoting Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s reaction to a school shooting in Nashville two weeks ago, in which she said, “My office is in contact with federal, state, & local officials, & we stand ready to assist.”

“In what?” Popovich said. “They’re dead. What are you going to assist with? Cleaning up their brains off the wall? Wiping the blood off the schoolroom floor? What are you going to assist with?”

Popovich stated his fear for his grandchildren when leaving them at school.

“Most of you in this room, when we were in school, we worried if Nancy would dance with us on Friday after the football game or something,” he said. “That was our anxiety.”

He then spoke about the lost meaning and misinterpretation of the Second Amendment, which declares that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

“The Second Amendment is “a myth, it’s a joke, it’s just a game they play,” he added. “I mean, that’s freedom. Is it freedom for kids to go to school and try to socialize and try to learn and be scared to death that they might die that day?”

On many occasions, Popovich used his position as a public person in the Sport-entertaining world to address some disputed social subjects, like race and LGBTQ+ rights. He is not the only coach around the NBA who raised awareness of the bad gun-control policy in the U.S.

Little less than one year ago, Steve Kerr also decided that in the press conference where his team almost clinched the playoff berth, the Warriors coach instead talked about the similar mass shootings that happened in Uvalde, Texas.

“When are we going to do something?” Kerr added as he battered the table in front of him., directing his question to Senator Mitch McConnell and the rest of the United States Senate, “I’m tired; I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there.”