With the NBA focused on social justice, white coaches say they're stepping off the sidelines
Lloyd Pierce stared at his computer screen and saw boxes filled with white faces.
A few days earlier, Pierce, the second-year Atlanta Hawks coach, had spent hours on the phone with three of his peers, confessing their shared anguish over the police killing of George Floyd. Those three — Cleveland Cavaliers Coach J.B. Bickerstaff, Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Brown and Utah Jazz assistant Johnnie Bryant — understood Pierce’s pain. But few others could in the NBA’s coaching fraternity, which is predominantly white despite most players being black.
Pierce wanted the others to at least know that he, even as an NBA head coach, was still afraid of being profiled or mistreated by police. So he contacted the leaders of the NBA Coaches Association and organized a Zoom call, hoping to start a conversation about racism in America. Then, once all 30 men signed on, he emptied his heart.
“Just so you guys know, I’m not okay,” Pierce told the group. “I’m f---ed up right now.”
Two of Pierce’s white peers were already on the front lines for social justice: the San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich and the Warriors’ Steve Kerr, who both routinely transform pregame media sessions into passionate soliloquies on President Trump and equality.
But what Pierce needed now was the support of the others, many of whom had never uttered a forceful sentence publicly about racial, political or social matters. He asked for help — from all of them — pushing for meaningful and lasting change.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/07/28/white-nba-coaches-social-justice/
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