DALLAS (KXAN) — San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has used his platform to talk about politics and social issues throughout his coaching career, and before Sunday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, he used the time to call out Tennessee and Texas lawmakers following another school shooting.
Popovich referenced what police said was, “an elaborately planned” shooting March 27 at a private school in Nashville where three children and three adults were killed. He said, among other things, legislators are showing “cowardice and selfishness,” by not taking any action on passing gun control laws.
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“They are so scared to death about being primaried, about losing their job, losing their power, their salary,” he said. “You’d like to get each of them in a room, one by one, and say, ‘What’s more important to you? If you could vote for some good gun safety laws that most of the public agrees to, would you do that if it saved one kid? Or is your job and money more important to you, that you would say, screw the kid?'”
Popovich began the speech by asking the attending media members if they had brought a gun into American Airlines Arena. He expanded on what seemed like an odd question, referring to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“I just wondered because we have a governor and lieutenant governor and an attorney general that made it easier to have more guns,” he said. “That was a response to our kids getting murdered. I just thought that was a little bit strange decision. It’s just me, though.”
He also called out Sen. Ted Cruz and his plan to put more armed police officers in schools after the Uvalde shooting.
“Is it freedom for kids to go to school every day, and try to socialize, and try to learn and be scared to death that they might die that day?” he said. “But Ted Cruz will fix it because he’s going to double the cops in schools. That’s what he wants to do. Well, that will create a great environment. Is that freedom?” Or is it freedom to have a Congressman make a postcard with all of his family holding rifles, including an AR-15 or whatever. That’s more important than protecting kids?”
He took aim at comments made by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) following the Nashville shooting, saying what she said was so unbelievable to him, he had to “write it down.”
“Her comment after the massacre was, ‘My office is in contact with federal, state and local officials, and we stand ready to assist,'” he said. “In what? They’re dead,” he yelled.
He followed that with what Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said after the shooting, that his office was “monitoring the tragic situation,” and asking for prayers.
“What are you monitoring? They’re dead,” he said. “Children, they’re dead. When I pick up my 6- and 11-year-old grandkids at school when I’m here at home, on the way it goes through my mind that I hope they’ll be OK. Most of you in this room, when we were in school, we worried if Nancy would dance with us Friday after the football game or something. That was our anxiety.”
Popovich, who was recently elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, finished his 27th year Monday as head coach of the Spurs with a 138-117 win over the Mavericks. The Spurs finished tied with Houston for last in the Western Conference with a 22-60 record.