Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /var/www/wp-content/themes/jnews/class/ContentTag.php on line 86
Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /var/www/wp-content/themes/jnews/class/ContentTag.php on line 86
Being a fan of the Detroit Pistons, I am sometimes at odds with their coach, Stan Van Gundy. It’s not that SVG is a bad coach; it’s just that I have been spoiled by the excellence of the Pistons’ organization over the years.
I rolled with Isiah Thomas and the Bad Boys, and cheered when the Wallace Boys, Big Ben and Rasheed, teamed with Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton to win the 2004 NBA title.
SVG has yet to come close to those standards, although I must say the Pistons are vastly improved.
But win or lose, I have a new found appreciation for coach Gundy.
In brilliantly penned guest column for Time, SVG offered his take on the issue of athletes and activism. He called the men and women who have stepped out to make a statement, Patriots.
Gundy says that as a white man, coaching in the NBA the past 20-years, he has had an opportunity to listen to many of the stories of the black men, who make up 75 percent of the league.
It has offered him a perspective on race that few whites have experienced. Van Gundy calls the men and women who have expressed their views on race and equality ‘patriots’.
Click to read Van Gundy’s column.
