NBA coaches sound off on shootings

Kidd and Kerr spent the entirety of their pregame press conferences discussing the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where at least 18 children and three adults died Tuesday afternoon.

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May 26, 2022 - 3:58 PM

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr talks about gun violence during a news conference before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday in Dallas. BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/NHAT V. MEYER/TNS

DALLAS — Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr declined to talk about basketball less than two hours before Game 4 of the Western Conference finals tipped off Tuesday.

They had bigger concerns in mind.

Kidd and Kerr spent the entirety of their pregame press conferences discussing the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where at least 18 children and three adults died Tuesday afternoon.

For three minutes in front of cameras and reporters, Kerr delivered an emotional, impassioned, outraged call for action.

He pounded the table. He shouted. He called out Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and U.S. senators for inaction. His voice caught with emotion.

Kerr’s father, Malcolm, was shot and killed by two gunmen in 1984, and the Warriors’ coach has long been one of the NBA’s most fervent advocates for gun control.

“I’m not going to talk about basketball,” Kerr started his press conference. “Nothing’s happened with our team in the last six hours. We’re going to start the same way tonight. Any basketball questions don’t matter.

“Since we left [pregame] shootaround, 14 children were killed 400 miles from here, and a teacher. In the last 10 days, we’ve had elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, now we have children murdered at school.

“When are we going to do something? I’m tired. I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I’m so tired. Excuse me. I’m sorry. I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough.

“There’s 50 Senators right now who refuse to vote on HR8, which is a background check rule that the House passed a couple years ago. It’s been sitting there for two years. There’s a reason they won’t vote on it: to hold onto power.

“I ask you, Mitch McConnell, all of you Senators who refuse to do anything about the violence, school shootings, supermarket shootings, I ask you: Are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers? Because that’s what it looks like. That’s what we do every week.

“So I’m fed up. I’ve had enough. We’re going to play the game tonight. But I want every person here, every person listening to this, to think about your own child or grandchild, mother or father, sister, brother. How would you feel if this happened to you today?

“We can’t get numb to this. We can’t sit here and just read about it and go, ‘Well, let’s have a moment of silence. Go Dubs. C’mon, Mavs, let’s go.’ That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go play a basketball game.

“Fifty Senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage. Do you realize that 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want background checks, universal background checks? Ninety percent of us. We are being held hostage by 50 Senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we the American people want.

“They won’t vote on it because they want to hold onto their own power. It’s pathetic. I’ve had enough.”

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