In light of all the social injustice and racial inequality protests that have taken place the past month in the world of professional sports, Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy gave his support and advice to those who plan on taking a stand.
The peaceful protests will likely take place during preseason and regular season games, the latter will tip-off a month from now.
“I find it encouraging that we have a number of these guys that want to say something and want to use the platform they have, and not just care about how much they're making,” Van Gundy told Aaron McMann of MLive. “They want to get involved in what's going on in society. I think that is fabulous and we need to support it in every single way we can.”
Van Gundy didn't take long to shine light on the real point of these individual protests.
“Right now, (the anthem) is what everybody's focusing on,” Van Gundy said. “To me, it's a little bit unfortunate because I think it's become – the interest is, are they going to stand for the national anthem or not? Unfortunately, that's gotten us away from talking about the issues that are really out there.
“The police violence against people of color, to me that's just the visible thing to focus on. It goes to deeper inequities in our criminal justice system, in our education system. There's so much to focus on.”
Van Gundy, who is going on his third year with the Pistons, urged players to have an informed, eloquent take on the issues, rather than do it merely to support other athletes or people of color.
“But what do you want to do?,” said Van Gundy.” “Do you just want to kneel down to bring attention to the fact that there's a problem? That's great. Do you want to beyond it?”
“If you're going to have those conversations, we know the simple part: stop shooting black men. Particularly unarmed. Now what do you want them to do? What policies do you want in place? You don't have to have the answer, but go in there with some ideas. Or why are we having the meeting? To get a photo op? It's got to go beyond that.”
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