Team USA men’s basketball coach Steve Kerr has referred to the attempted assassination of former U.S.President Donald Trump as “such a demoralizing day for our country.” in a story by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the men’s team is preparing for the upcoming Paris Olympics, Kerr, who also coaches the Golden State Warriors, told reporters: “It’s yet another example of not only our political division but also gun culture.
“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.
“Thank god Trump wasn’t hit, but it’s just so demoralizing in every which way.”
Born in Lebanon, Beirut, the 58-year-old Kerr was just 18 when his father, Malcolm H. Kerr, was killed by members of the Islamic Jihad in 1984 while working as the president of the American University of Beirut. Kerr has a long history of speaking out against gun violence.
Warriors point guard Steph Curry echoed his coach’s thoughts when speaking to reporters about the assassination attempt.
“It’s obviously a very sad, just 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 invokes a lot of emotions around things that we need to correct as a people: gun control, first and foremost.
“You want positivity and hope — it sounds cheesy, but it’s real. “That’s when our country’s at its best and (the shooting) just adds another blemish to what’s going on.”