He has remained true to being an advocate for voting rights, so when Doc Rivers was asked Saturday if he had met Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the Clippers coach responded by lamenting how the fight for Black people and other people of color to vote continues, something the iconic congressman who died Friday fought for in the 1960s.
"Really sad day for our country," Rivers said to the media via Zoom conference call. "What's amazing is when you think about right now, some of the stuff that John Lewis was fighting for, we're still fighting for it. Voter suppression right now is at an all-time high. It's amazing how hard ...
"We have a group of people who are trying to get people not to vote. Latinos, Blacks and young people are the targets. That's who they are trying to get not to vote. And it's amazing when you think about how long ago that was and yet we're still fighting that fight."
Rivers recalled meeting Lewis when the then-guard played for the Atlanta Hawks in the '80s and early part of the '90s, and how it left an indelible mark on him when it came to voting.
Rivers said "it is a big deal" to hear about the passing of Lewis, who survived a savage beating in 1965 at a Selma, Ala., bridge during the movement for Black people to have the right to vote.
Rivers recalled going on a campaign trip with Andrew Young, who was running to be the governor of Georgia after having been the mayor of Atlanta, along with Lewis. Lewis and Young had been friends and had marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for civil rights during the '60s.
Rivers said they flew from Atlanta to Albany, Ga., to attend a speech Young was giving at an "all-white church," and that Young gave an "absolutely amazing speech" and the "crowd was going crazy."
On the flight back to Atlanta, Rivers said Young asked the young player what he thought of the speech.
"I jokingly said, 'Well, Mr. Young, I thought the speech was great, but I don't think you're getting one vote from that church,' " Rivers recalled. "And everybody started laughing. John Lewis piped in and says, 'Well, we're not trying to get all of them. We're just trying to get one at a time, and eventually it will be all of them.' I thought that was just one powerful statement."
