As Steve Kerr and his star players are about to represent the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, he had difficulty putting together his emotions in response to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
“This is a time where we feel very proud to represent our country wearing USA on our chest, competing in the Olympics,” Kerr said on Sunday, per ESPN. “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.”
Kerr has a long history of criticizing gun violence in the U.S. after various tragic shootings, and has a personal attachment to the issue as his father, Malcolm, was assassinated in Beirut, Lebanon in 1984.
“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.
“Thank God Trump wasn’t hit, but it’s just so demoralizing in every which way.”
Bullets rang out during the former president’s speech at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
A bullet grazed his ear and Trump was quickly on the ground surrounded by Secret Service agents before making his way off the stage while pausing to pump his fist up to the crowd.
On Sunday morning, the shooter was identified as a 20-year-old white male, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was in an elevated position more than 130 yards away from Trump’s position.
He was quickly killed by Secret Service snipers.
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest on the assassination attempt of former President Trump
Team USA’s players and coaches heard of the event upon waking up on Sunday morning.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Martina Strong, additionally addressed the team and its staff in a prescheduled meeting.
“It’s obviously a very sad time in general,” Stephen 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 team will stay in the Middle East this week before playing preparation games against Australia on Monday and then Serbia on Wednesday.
The opening ceremony in Paris is set for Friday, July 26 and the U.S. men’s first game is on July 28 against Serbia.
“Obviously what we’re doing is very trivial, just playing basketball, but we want to put our best selves out there to try to give people a glimpse of what our country can be about,” Kerr said. “And then you hear something like this and it’s just so demoralizing and obviously so sad.
