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Bogut: Any anti-establishment candidate, even my dog, would've won election

REUTERS/Jim Young

Dallas Mavericks center Andrew Bogut hasn't been afraid to talk politics recently, either with reporters or on social media. The Australian took some heat before the presidential election for retweeting conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, and he said the rancor cemented his dislike for so-called social justice crusaders.

"I got in trouble two weeks ago because of who I follow," Bogut told ESPN's Ethan Sherwood Strauss, "I've got some far left follows ... I've got some far right follows," he said. "I try to read a little bit from all aspects and then try to figure out what the hell really happened. And I was getting killed for that because I had some far right, and I'm like, 'I really don't care.'"

He added, "That comes down to my hatred for social justice warriors. Because they did the very thing that they oppose ... My mentions were like, I'm a racist bigot. I'm like, hold on a second, I'm not even American. I wasn't going to vote for (Donald) Trump ... I wasn't going to vote for Hillary (Clinton), and you guys are are calling me all kinds of names, saying 'Go back to Australia!'"

Bogut, 31, also said that the media is responsible for the fact Trump's election came as such a shock to so many.

"I think there's surprise because the mainstream media ingrained in everyone's head that it was going to be an avalanche for the Democrats," he said. "It's not a secret. Every portion of the mainstream media is heavily left. There's a huge bias ... No one trusts mainstream media anymore. I don't trust them."

Bogut, who suggested last month that the United States was "in some trouble" regardless of who won, also offered his thoughts on states like Wisconsin and Michigan sending their electoral votes to - and sealing the presidency for - Trump.

"I lived in Wisconsin for seven years and I saw firsthand what happened to blue-collar workers and it wasn't pretty," the former Milwaukee Buck said. "... I think those same people probably voted left the last two campaigns and they probably felt let down. I think that's the reality of pushing them towards a candidate who probably wasn't the right candidate. ...

"People are against the establishment. I think anyone, didn't have to be Trump, it could have been my Siberian husky, he could have came out and said 'I'm anti-establishment, F the bankers, F the establishment.' He probably would have won the election."

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