The Trump campaign took aim at Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr over his previous refusal to comment on the NBA’s controversial relationship with China after Kerr said during his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night that he felt the election was "too important… not to speak up."
Days after coaching Team USA to another medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kerr took center stage at the DNC to voice his support for Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz in the upcoming presidential election.
"I know very well that speaking out about politics these days comes with risks. I can see the ‘shut up and whistle’ tweets being fired off as we speak. But I also knew as soon as I was asked that it was too important as an American citizen not to speak up in an election of this magnitude," Kerr said at the United Center in Chicago.
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"The reason I said yes to speaking here tonight is that as a coach and a former player, as a husband, a son, a father, even a grandfather, and as an American – I believe in a certain kind of leadership. I believe that leaders must display dignity. I believe that leaders must tell the truth."
To close out his speech, Kerr named former President Trump.
"After the results are tallied that night, we can, in the words of the great Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump, ‘Night, night!’"
The Trump campaign responded on social media, calling out Kerr’s motivation for "speaking up" in this election despite declining to comment on the NBA’s controversial relationship with China in 2019.
"Steve Kerr said tonight that ‘speaking out about politics these days comes with risks... but it was too important as an American citizen to not speak up,’" the post read. "This is the same Steve Kerr that had no comment when he was asked about China's human rights abuses."
The video in the post shared on X was of Kerr speaking to the media in October 2019 after Chinese state television decided not to air two NBA exhibition games in response to the league's reaction to comments made by former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
Kerr said at the time that he did not have any comment on the issue, which he described as a "really bizarre international story".
"It's something I’m reading about, just like everybody is, but I’m not going to comment further than that," he said. "What I’ve found is that it’s easy to speak on issues that I’m passionate about and that I feel like I’m well-versed on, and I’ve found that it makes the most sense to stick to topics that fall in that category."
Days later, Kerr faced further backlash after he said he had never been asked about "human rights abuses" that take place in the U.S. when he visited China.
"No. Nor has our record of human rights abuses come up either," he said at the time after a reporter asked if he had been questioned about Chinese human rights while in China. "People in China didn't ask me about, you know, people owning AR-15s and mowing each other down in a mall."
"The world is a complex place and there's more gray than black and white," he added.
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