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Jeff Zillgitt
| USA TODAY
NBA players and coaches use the platform once again after Capitol riots
SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports Jeff Zillgitt examines the NBA’s latest example as a league that encourages its players and coaches to speak and use its platform, this time after the riots in the Capitol building.
SportsPulse, USA TODAY
Utah Jazz said in a statement that it is cooperating with an NBA investigation into former guard Elijah Millsap’s allegations that executive vice president of basketball operations, Dennis Lindsey, made threats of racial accusation during a farewell meeting in end of the 2014-15 season.
“The Jazz organization has zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior of any kind,” the team said in a statement on Thursday. “We take these matters seriously. We proactively hire outside lawyers to work in coordination with the NBA to thoroughly investigate this matter. We seek a comprehensive and impartial analysis of the situation. “
On a series of tweets posted on Wednesday night, Millsap accused Lindsey of making “prejudiced comments” during his exit interview, which included Jazz coach Quin Snyder. Millsap claimed that one of Lindsey’s remarks included saying, “‘If you say one more word, I’m going to cut your black ass and send you back to Louisiana.”
Lindsey told Salt Lake City reporters, “I categorically deny having made that statement.”
“Honestly, I don’t remember the conversation, but I would be shocked,” said Snyder after Jazz’s victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. “I can’t imagine Dennis saying anything like that.”
Millsap played with Jazz in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. Lindsey is in his second season as executive vice president of basketball operations for Jazz, after serving the previous seven seasons as general manager of the team.
Approaching the end of the 2018-19 season, Lindsey was annoyed when a Jazz fan addressed inappropriate comments to Russel Westbrook of Oklahoma City during a Jazz-Thunder game in Salt Lake City.
In a raw and emotional interview with USA TODAY Sports, Lindsey said: “As Pop (San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich) said, we have to talk about our national sin. “People can say, ‘Hey, whatever, what the fan said was a small thing.’ Well, it isn’t. What it does is make everyone feel small, and every Caucasian should look at himself and look at his heart. “
Lindsey grew up in Clute, Texas, the son of parents who oversaw collective housing for underprivileged youth. Lindsey and her family sometimes lived in these multiracial houses.
“What I would say about this when you live with someone close to you is that you realize that there is a race – the human race,” said Lindsey in 2019. “That’s what we need to talk about. This is our national discussion and we just need to admit where it is and where our hearts are. Much of this is fear and ignorance. “