Doc Rivers juggled questions about pro-Trump troublemakers in Washington, DC attacking the Capitol and the Sixers game against the Wizards on Wednesday night as someone who has been in this position many times before.
Of course, he has. In August, he spoke with passion about police violence and racism in America. He also worked behind the scenes as players considered how to move forward after the police shot by Jacob Blake, a black man from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who was shot seven times in the back and is now paralyzed from the waist down. Players decided to attack, returning to play after the NBA and NBPA made three commitments related to social justice and racial equality. Rivers and Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce are the two coaches of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, which originated from the players’ attack. As the Clippers’ head coach, Rivers dealt with the scandal, ugliness and racism that accompanied former owner Donald Sterling.
On Tuesday, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley told reporters that no charges will be brought against the police officer who shot Blake, Rusten Sheskey. And on Wednesday, supporters of President Donald Trump violently violated the Capitol. According to NBC News, at least one person was shot and the Senate was forced to evacuate.
In this very intense context, Rivers was invited to share his thoughts.
“It’s very disturbing, obviously,” he said. “Sad. But what is not, I hear, this attack on democracy. It is not. Democracy will prevail. It always is. But it shows a lot. When you saw the protests in the summer and you saw the riots and the police and the National Guard and the army, you saw it and you saw nothing. Basically, it proves a point about privileged life in many ways. what would have happened?
“So this, for me, is a picture that is worth a thousand words for all of us to see, and probably something to count on again. No police dogs turning on people, no baton hitting people – people being peacefully escorted out of Capitol Hill. So it shows that you can disperse a crowd peacefully, I think, that would be the only thing. But it is a sad day in many ways; it is not good for our country and beyond the borders, for people to see this. It is part of who we are, so we have to resolve it. “
Reflecting on the state of the country, Rivers identified another reason for optimism: he does not see the violent pro-Trump crowd as representing the nation.
“… These are not the masses,” said Rivers. “The masses spoke. I’m so proud of Georgia, ”Georgia said. So this is not the dough. This is a group of people who decided to be undisciplined and if we leave it at that, I think we would all be in a better place, right? But the symbolism of invading the Capitol without force on them, if you are a black American, definitely touches you in a different way. This is not a black thing; this is an American thing again today, and we shouldn’t turn it into that. But it definitely makes you think, for sure. “
Rivers alluded to the results of Georgia’s two runoff elections. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s projected victories will give Democrats control of the Senate.
While there is no plan for any coach on how to handle those times when life outside of basketball is impossible to ignore, Rivers’ job is to guide his team. That meant something different on Wednesday night than it normally would be.
“This is a difficult issue today because we were all at home watching TV,” he said. “It is such an individual emotion. It is almost what I was saying before: As an older black man, I saw police dogs being thrown at people, and then you see today where there is nothing. And that’s an emotion that I have, right?
“Tobias (Harris) and those guys probably don’t have that emotion. I don’t know how many guys were watching TV today. You just don’t know, but you know it will be the conversation, for both teams. Washington, think of them, is where they live now, so they have a lot to do – probably concerned about the public safety of their families. So this is a tough one tonight, I have to tell you, and we’ll see how it goes. “