By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
“They have to work out their own situation” replied Donald Trump to a question on the complicated situation between the NBA and China. The U.S. President reassured that the NBA knows what its doing commenting on the handling of the crisis, but did not miss out on criticizing Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich.
Both the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs head coaches have been vocal critics of Trump’s policies in the past. This time around, the 73-year-old President responded in his own way valuing that Kerr and Popovich were pandering China when discussing the since-deleted tweet of the GM of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, in favor of protests in Hong Kong.
“He was like a little boy, he was so scared. He was shaking,” mentioned Trump on Kerr’s response, “He didn’t know how to answer the question, and yet he’ll talk about the United States very badly.”
“I watched Popovich, sort of the same thing, but he didn’t look quite as scared, actually” added the U.S. President, “But they talk badly about the United States. When they talk about China, they don’t want to say anything bad.”
Kerr, 54, previously admitted he was not fully informed on the international incident avoiding to further comment. On his part, Popovich praised NBA commissioner Adam Silver for his handling of the complicated issue without offering his own opinion on the matter.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members challenged the NBA with strong language to suspend business activities in China. The eight Congress members signing the letter were addressing commissioner Silver.