The San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a prolific critic of Donald Trump, has fired another broadside at the US president over the firing of FBI director James Comey.
Popovich, is an Air Force veteran and considered a career with the CIA before committing to basketball, was asked on Sunday if he was ever distracted by events outside sports. While the five-time NBA champion did not mention Trump by name, it was clear he was referring to the president.
“It’s interesting you would ask that,” Popovich said before the Spurs’ playoff game against the Golden State Warriors. “Usually things happen in the world, and you go to work, you know, and you’ve got your family and you’ve got your friends and you do what you do, but to this day I feel like there’s a cloud, a pall over the whole country – in a paranoid, surreal sort of way.
Gonna guess that Pop is talking about Donald Trump here. pic.twitter.com/BP1ml37nP6
— Sean Wagner-McGough (@seanjwagner) May 14, 2017
“It’s got nothing to do with the Democrats losing the election. It’s got to do with the way one individual conducts himself. And that’s embarrassing, it’s dangerous to our institutions and what we all stand for, what we expect the country to be. But for this individual, he’s in a game show. And everything that happens begins and ends with him – not our people or our country. Every time he talks about those things, that’s just a ruse. That’s just disingenuous, cynical and fake.”
Popovich has attacked Trump in the past. “I hope he does a great job, but there’s a difference between respecting the office of the presidency and who occupies it,” he said shortly after the president’s inauguration. “And that respect has to be earned. But it’s hard to be respectful of someone when we all have kids, and we’re watching him be misogynistic and xenophobic and racist and make fun of handicapped people.”
The Spurs opponents on Sunday are coached by Steve Kerr, who has also been critical of Trump. Earlier this year he said Trump’s election for a blow for “respect and dignity”. Kerr is currently on a leave of absence from the Warriors as he deals with complications from back surgery.
