It's no secret the majority of the NBA didn't get the result it hoped for in Tuesday's presidential election. The fallout was naturally a hot topic at league practices and shootarounds Wednesday, and Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy offered a blunt assessment.
"We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus," Van Gundy said, according to MLive's Aaron McMann. "I don't think anybody can deny (Donald Trump) is openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic."
The reaction of NBA players to Trump's election as the nation's 45th president has been near-universally negative. Trump will take office Jan. 20 for a four-year term. Van Gundy is known for his plain outspokenness, and hasn't been afraid to wade into political waters before.
"It's just, we have said - and my daughters, the three of them - our society has said, 'No, we think you should be second-class citizens. We want you to be second-class citizens'," Van Gundy continued. "And we embrace a guy who is openly misogynist as a our leader. I don't know how we get past that."
The coach then took aim at so-called evangelical Christians - who polled at 81 percent in favor of Trump, according to The Washington Post - as well as "red state" residents.
"I'm not a religious guy, but what the hell Bible are they reading? ... there are a lot of different groups we can be upset at. But you're Christians," he said. "You're supposed to be - at least you pride yourself on being the moral compass of our society - and you said, 'Yeah, the guy can talk about women like that. I'm fine with that.'
"He can disparage every ethnic group, and 'I'm fine with that'. It's embarrassing. I have been ashamed of a lot of things that have happened in this country, but I can't say I've ever been ashamed of our country until today.
"I'm going to walk into (Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix) and realize that - especially in this state - most of these people voted for the guy. Like, (expletive), I don't have any respect for that. I don't."
