'Hopefully some good comes of it': Warriors coach Steve Kerr spoke at length about Colin Kaepernick's protest over social injustice
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was a guest on ESPN's Zach Lowe's podcast, "The Lowe Post," and spoke at length about the social injustice and unrest in the US at this time.
He said the Warriors plan to discuss what they can do to help people like Kaepernick move the conversation forward.
"It's been quite the phenomenon, obviously, and hopefully, hopefully some good will come out of it," Kerr said.
Kerr called the rising in the discuss a "perfect storm," mentioning that Warriors forward David West recently said that incidents between police and black people have been occurring for years, but social media and video evidence has brought it to life. Kerr called the impact of people seeing these acts of violence "profound."
Warriors forward Draymond Green addressed the issue during the team's media day, saying he supports Kaepernick but won't take a knee during the anthem. He said the conversation has already been started and the next step needs to be taken. Kerr agreed.
"There's a lot of things that the Warriors already do. We have a foundation like I'm sure every NBA team, give away a lot of money, raise a lot of money, but there's more to it, obviously, than just money. There's an awareness and discussion. And so, we've had organizational discussions about bringing in panels of people who can basically visit with our players, our organization about what we can do to - not necessarily help with police violence, because that's sort of a byproduct of other stuff, right? It's more about socioeconomic issues and jobs and education.
"So, what can we do to help people get on the right track, but also try to involve the police to where we can have as much meaningful conversation as we can to understand what we can do. I think we all would like to help, but it's kind of tricky. How do you help? And that's what we're trying to find out."
Kerr also criticized the "gun culture" in America, saying it plays a part in the tension between police and the black community.
"But blaming the gun culture, I think, is actually - it's not 100% of it - but it's part of it," Kerr said. "We have such a culture of gun violence. Everybody is afraid that somebody is gonna shoot them, and the police are right in the middle of that, and it creates this horrible possibility for disaster."
He continued, "I guess what I'm saying is there are absolutely horrific acts that have to stop. There's absolutely racism, but this goes much deeper. It's about socioeconomic opportunities, it's about the gun culture, it's about human dignity, it's about respect, or lack thereof, in terms of the discourse in this country. And it's very, very sad."
The NBA season is only just beginning, but it's clear that the conversation Kaepernick has started in the NFL is going to continue into the NBA, particularly with the Warriors.
Listen to the entire podcast here. >