Gregg Popovich goes on lengthy rant over Trump's election: 'I'm sick to my stomach'
Popovich told reporters he's still trying to process Trump's election, saying, "It's too early. I'm just sick to my stomach."
He said he's "disgusted" that voters were willing to brush aside Trump's "xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic" language during his campaign.
"I live in that country where half of the people ignored all of that to elect someone," Popovich said. "That's the scariest part of the whole thing to me. It's got nothing to do with the environment and Obamacare, and all of the other stuff. We live in a country that ignored all of those values that we would hold our kids accountable for. They'd be grounded for years if they acted and said the things that have been said in that campaign by Donald Trump."
He also expressed confusion that evangelical Christians were willing to ignore Trump's hateful language. He added that he respects political figures like Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain, as well as Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich - all of whom he disagrees with politically - for not condoning Trump's actions.
Popovich reasoned that anyone can understand Trump's message while not forgiving his "fear mongering."
"It leaves me wondering where I've been living, and with whom I'm living," he said.
Popovich continued, blasting the postelection rhetoric and the way Trump's transition into office is being handled.
"The fact that people can just gloss that over, start talking about the transition team, and we're all going to be kumbaya now and try to make the country good without talking about any of those things. And now we see that he's already backing off of immigration and Obamacare and other things, so was it a big fake, which makes you feel it's even more disgusting and cynical that somebody would use that to get the base that fired up. To get elected. And what gets lost in the process are African-Americans, and Hispanics, and women, and the gay population, not to mention the eighth-grade developmental stage exhibited by him when he made fun of the handicapped person. I mean, come on. That's what a seventh grade, eighth grade bully does. And he was elected president of the United States. We would have scolded our kids. We would have had discussions until we were blue in the face trying to get them to understand these things. He is in charge of our country. That's disgusting."
According to the San Antonio News-Express, a reporter began to ask another question, and Popovich cut him off:
"I'm not done. One could go on and on. We didn't make this stuff up. He's angry at the media because they reported what he said and how he acted. That's ironic to me. It makes no sense. So that's my real fear, and that's what gives me so much pause and makes me feel so badly that the country is willing to be that intolerant and not understand the empathy that's necessary to understand other group's situations. I'm a rich white guy, and I'm sick to my stomach thinking about it. I can't imagine being a Muslim right now, or a woman, or an African American, a Hispanic, a handicapped person. How disenfranchised they might feel. And for anyone in those groups that voted for him, it's just beyond my comprehension how they ignore all of that. My final conclusion is, my big fear is - we are Rome."
Popovich is one of several coaches to speak out against Trump's election. Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy also denounced Trump and his voters, while Warriors coach Steve Kerr mourned the lack of decorum in the election.