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Warriors coach Kerr shrugs off Trump criticism
LOS ANGELES, Oct 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Golden State Warriors coach Steve
Kerr, whose response to the NBA’s rift with China was criticized by US
President Donald Trump, Thursday bemoaned the loss of dignity in the White
House.
“I was just the shiny object,” Kerr said before the Warriors’ pre-season
game against the Minnesota Timberwolves when asked if he’d taken Trump’s
criticism to heart.
“There was another one today, and there will be another one tomorrow, and
the circus will go on.”
Trump on Wednesday said he thought Kerr — a longtime critic of the
president — “looked like a little boy” when he declined to comment on the
NBA’s public relations crisis in China — where authorities were angered by a
tweet from Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey offering support to pro-
democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong.
Kerr had said he preferred to withhold comment until he knew more about the
matter, prompting a mocking reference from Trump.
“He couldn’t even answer the question, he was shaking, ‘Ohhhhh, I don’t
know … I don’t know,'” Trump said.
Kerr said he wasn’t at all surprised by Trump’s comments, going on to
contrast them with his interactions with five prior US presidents, including
a visit to Ronald Reagan’s White House after Kerr’s father was killed in
Lebanon in 1984 when he was a professor at the American University of Beirut.
“Wow, has the office sunken low,” Kerr said of his reaction to Trump’s
remarks, saying he would like to see a “mature unifier from either party to
sit in that chair and try to restore some dignity to the Oval Office again.”
Tension between the NBA and China — where the US league enjoys a huge
following — promises to be a continuing theme as the upcoming season gets
underway.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0835 hrs