Clippers coach Doc Rivers on Wednesday added his voice to an ever-growing chorus of NBA players and coaches speaking out against police brutality in the United States.
Following his team's 154-111 Game 5 win over the Mavericks to go up 3-2 in the first-round series, Rivers used his postgame news conference to call not only for an end to police brutality, but also for a change in police training and an end to police unions. He added that he does not want to defund the police — only for officers to protect the Black communities "just like they protect everybody else."
Below is Rivers' postgame statement in full (over two videos):
“It’s amazing to me why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back.”
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) August 26, 2020
Doc Rivers delivers an emotional message on the police shooting of Jacob Blake. pic.twitter.com/A0T26OfsDG
Doc Rivers with raw emotion and a thunderbolt cry for justice: "All you hear is Donald Trump & all of them talking about fear. We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot...It's amazing, we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back." pic.twitter.com/19dHu9UlZ5
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) August 26, 2020
MORE: Fred VanVleet on emotional struggle following Jacob Blake shooting
Rivers' statement comes after the Sunday shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man whom video shows was shot in the back seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisc., as he tried to enter his SUV. His three children, ages 3, 5 and 8, were in the car when he was shot. Per his family's attorney, Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Rivers also spoke specifically on Blake, saying Black citizens should not be the only ones outraged at his shooting by police.
"I didn't want to talk about it before the game, because it's so hard, like, to keep watching it. That video, if you watch that video, you don't need to be Black to be outraged," Rivers said. "You need to be American and outraged."
Rivers joined several players and coaches speaking out on the issue of police brutality following Blake's shooting. Thunder star Chris Paul called for his fellow professional athletes to get registered to vote; the Raptors' Fred VanFleet spoke to the emotional struggle players have experienced in the aftermath of the Blake shooting; LeBron James responded by saying "Black people in America are scared." Rivers' own player, Paul George, spoke on the issue after Game 5 on Tuesday, saying he hoped for change because "hope's all we got."
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle echoed those sentiments, calling Blake's shooting "another horrible gut punch."
"It's an absolutely horrible, hideous situation," Carlisle said before Tuesday's game. "It's just the unthinkable, but these things have happened all too often, and they keep happening, and that's why we're talking so much about racial justice here."
Rivers also delivered a stinging rebuke of Republicans — who gathered this week at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. — for speaking about fear in this election year.
"And how dare the Republicans — talk about fear?" Rivers said. "We're the ones that need to be scared. We're the ones having to talk to every Black child. What white father has to give his son a talk about being careful if you get pulled over?
"It's just ridiculous. And it keeps going. There's no charges. Breonna Taylor, no charges. Nothing. All we're asking is that you live up to the Constitution. That's all we're asking. For everybody. For everyone."
