The NBA community has long been full of voices against gun violence, and perhaps none have been louder than Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. When Kerr was 18, his father, Malcolm Kerr, was shot twice and killed in Beirut by members of the Islamic Jihad Organization, and he has been a well-known advocate for gun control for most of his career. Currently, Kerr is coaching Team USA as it prepares to play in the Paris Olympics, and on Sunday he weighed in after the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump, currently running for election, was "doing fine" after a bullet pierced his right ear. One rally attendee was killed, as was the suspected gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting
In Kerr's eyes, it was a grim reminder of the prevalence of guns within the United States.
"It's such a demoralizing day for our country, and it's yet another example of not only our political division but also gun culture," Kerr told reporters in Abu Dhabi. "A 20-year-old with an AR-15 trying to shoot the former president. It's hard to process everything, and it's scary to think about where this goes because of the issues that already exist in the country. So this is a terrible day."
Kerr's Golden State star Stephen Curry, who is playing for Team USA, echoed those sentiments. "It's obviously a very sad time in general," Curry said. "All the conversations around the election and the state of politics in our country, and then you have a situation like this, which just [evokes] a lot of emotions around things that we need to correct as a people.
"Obviously, gun control first and foremost, because the fact that that's even possible for somebody to have an attack like that. But just more so you want to [see] positivity and hope. It sounds cheesy, but it's real. That's when our country's at its best, and it just adds another blemish to what's going on. So sad is just the word."
The Olympics are an opportunity not just for the United States, but for any nation, to put its best foot forward. Team USA's basketball team, filled with superstars that have a history of political and social advocacy, will be front and center when the games begin in Paris later this month.
