Former US president Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt on Saturday at a political rally and Team USA coach Steve Kerr and Steph Curry have spoken about the shocking turn of events.
Team USA are in United Arab Emirates preparing for the Paris Olympics and Kerr was quick to condemn the actions taken against Trump once he and the team learned of the news on Sunday morning.
“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 said. “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.
“You imagine [the victims’] family and friends today and what they’re feeling, and thank God Trump wasn’t [critically wounded],” Kerr said.
He added, “This is a time where we feel very proud to represent our country wearing USA on our chest, competing in the Olympics. We’ve talked to the players about how important it is to show the best version of us as human beings to represent our country in a respectful, dignified manner. It makes you want to do that even more so, because this is really shameful for us to sit here and think about what happened and what’s going on in our country.”
One of Team USA’s star players, Curry, also addressed the incident and spoke about the concerning state of gun control in the USA as a whole.
“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.”
Team USA will stay in the Middle East this week before playing Olympic exhibition games against Australia Monday and Serbia Wednesday.
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