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“Can you think of what would have happened if those were black people”: Sixers coach Doc Rivers passionately points out white privilege in treatment of Washington rioters

Amulya Shekhar
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NBA Black head coaches: How many Black head coaches are currently leading teams within the NBA? 

Doc Rivers made a passionate statement about the contrast in treatment between BLM protests and the Washington rioters who stormed the Capitol.

Washington DC was taken hostage by thousands of Trump supporters who went to a Stop the Steal rally yesterday. The rioters barged into Capitol Hill in the thousands and ravaged the building. Among the major targets was the office of Nancy Pelosi, which was ransacked comprehensively.

Also Read: “Kawhi Leonard wasn’t happy with Draymond Green’s flagrant foul”: Video shows how Clippers Finals MVP was frustrated with Warriors star’s foul on him

So far, the death of 4 rioters has come to light. Doc Rivers took the opportunity in the pre-game press conference yesterday to put some prudent points forward.

Doc Rivers explains how white and black protesters are treated differently

Speaking to the press, Rivers had the following things to say on Wednesday:

“It’s pretty disturbing and sad. What it’s not, is I keep hearing, ‘This attack on democracy.’ It’s not. . . Democracy will prevail. It always does. It shows a lot though. When you saw protests in the summer, you saw the riots or more the police, the National Guard, and the Army. And then you see this and you saw nothing. It basically proves the point about a privileged life in a lot of ways.”

“I’ll say it because I don’t think a lot of people want to. Could you imagine today if those were all Black people storming into the Capitol and what would’ve happened? So, that to me is a picture that’s worth 1,000 words for all of us to see and probably something for us to reckon with again.”

Also Read: “They’re not fing protestors, they’re fing terrorists”: Warriors’ Draymond Green, Clippers’ Paul George make strong statements against yesterday’s Washington riots

Overall, the response of the NBA to the events of yesterday and the verdict of the Jacob Blake indictment were muted. But the players and coaches used whatever platforms they could to speak out. Twitter was in shambles especially in the wake of these riots.

About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar

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Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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