“I’m not going to talk about basketball.” Ahead of Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals in Dallas, Texas, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted he wasn’t in the game after the shootings at a Texas school, where at least 18 students died as well as a teacher.
During a press conference, the Warriors manager had a lump in his throat: “Since we left the training session, 14 children have been killed 600 km from here, and a teacher. In the past ten days, it’s black seniors who have been killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now children have been killed in school.”
“When are we going to do something? I’m tired, Kerr continued, moved to tears. I’m tired of standing in front of you to offer my condolences to the devastated families. We are going to play tonight. But I want every listener to think of their own child or grandchild, mother or father, sister or brother. How would you feel if that happened to you today?” asked Kerr, whose father was murdered by Islamist terrorists, in Beirut in 1984.
The former player, whose father was assassinated by Islamist terrorists in Beirut in 1984, urged politicians to act. “90% of Americans, regardless of their political orientation, want criminal or psychological background checks on purchasers of small arms,” he said, banging his fist on the table.
While the gun lobby, which Joe Biden calls on to fight, remains important in the American political ecosystem, carrying a gun remains a right enshrined in the American constitution, leading to such acts, committed this Tuesday by a 18 year old teenager. “We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who are refusing to even put this measure to a vote, despite what we, the American people, want,” laments Kerr.
