Grizzlies' Fizdale speaks out against Civil War statues in Memphis

Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale isn't just "sticking to sports" in light of the recent events in Charlottesville, Va.

According to TNT's David Aldridge, Fizdale is speaking out against the presence of two statues in his city - those of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Confederate army general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was one of the first members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Both monuments were in their namesake parks in Memphis until they were renamed in 2013, but the statues still remain, something the Grizzlies head coach wants to have a hand in changing.

“My agenda is simple - I want those things out of our city, out of public view,” Fizdale said Saturday, according to Aldridge.

“I’m not even saying tear them up and melt them down. Put them in their proper context in history. Their proper context is in a civil rights museum, where you could put them in context and talk about how awful they were. I just feel our citizens should not have to see that involuntarily."

Though Tennessee's 'Heritage Protection Act' outlines that no statues or monuments erected on public property in honor of a military conflict may be removed or altered, the Memphis City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to approve the removal of the statues.

No one from the Grizzlies' camp has asked Fizdale to stay out of it, so he's continuing his pursuit.

“I think they support me for the most part,” he said. “Obviously, it’s edgy. It makes people uncomfortable. But that’s good. I want people to be uncomfortable. Our owner (Robert Pera), the owner of FedEx, our white owners of all the companies in the city, they’re the ones who have to step up and clean this out of our city.

"Money talks. What says more than people stepping up and saying ‘we’re not going to have this in our city?’ People have stepped up and bought tickets and supported them. I’m asking them to support us.”