Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said the whole team is pissed at Donald Sterling’s remarks about not wanting black people at his games, which he made to his girlfriend who is half-black and half-Mexican, that were recorded. TMZ obtained the recording and released it on Friday evening.
“J.J. Redick is as pissed as Chris Paul,” Rivers told TMZ before the Clippers practice at Golden State, where they play on Sunday leading 2-1 in the best of seven. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had previously been scheduled to attend that game.
Rivers also addressed reporters after practice.
“I don’t know if I’m surprised or not. I didn’t like the comments,” Rivers said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m going to tell you that I’m speaking on behalf of the team, so the players are not going to deal with this issue.”
He reiterated that “none of them are happy about it”:
This is a situation where we’re trying to go after something very important to us – something we’ve all dreamed about all of our childhoods. Donald or anyone else had nothing to do with that dream, and we’re not going to let anything get in the way of those dreams.
“That situation will be dealt with later. Right now, our goals haven’t changed. Our focus is on Golden State, and it’s going to stay on Golden State. … It upsets all of us. There’s not one guy who is happy with this situation. Do you think I want to be talking about this, instead of trying to stop Steph Curry? I don’t. … We try to keep clutter away from our team. It’s been brought to our team, and it upsets me, and it upsets our team.”
“We’re playing. We’re playing Golden State, and Golden State is our enemy right now. … We heard about all of the boycotts and all of the other stuff. That’s all stuff we could do. We choose to play. … The biggest statement we can make as men – not as black men, but as men – is to stick together and show how strong we are as a group. Not splinter. Not walk. It’s easy to protest. The protest will show in our play.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.