Gregg Popovich On Confronting Racism & Police Brutality

Gregg Popovich speaks on George Floyd, police brutality, and more.

BYCole Blake
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San Antonio Spurs' Head Coach Gregg Popovich discussed his thoughts on police brutality and the death of George Floyd in a new video series for the team's social media titled "#SpursVoices." He says he is "embarrassed as a white person" to see how black citizens are being treated by police.

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"In a strange, counterintuitive sort of way, the best teaching moment of this recent tragedy, I think, was the look on the officer's face," Popovich said in the powerful video."For white people to see how nonchalant, how casual, just how everyday-going-about-his job, so much so that he could just put his left hand in his pocket, wriggle his knee around a little bit to teach this person some sort of a lesson -- and that it was his right and his duty to do it, in his mind.

"I think I'm just embarrassed as a white person to know that that can happen. To actually watch a lynching. We've all seen books, and you look in the books and you see black people hanging off of trees. And you ... are amazed. But we just saw it again. I never thought I'd see that, with my own eyes, in real-time."

Floyd died, May 25, after police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for over 8 minutes.

Check out the full video of Popovich's thoughts below.

[Via]


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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.