"I will not talk about basketball, today it does not matter, they have killed 14 children – the number would later rise to 19 – 400 miles from here, children killed in a school." With this declaration of intent, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr began his post-game press conference. A brief but very harsh statement against the widespread use of weapons in the United States, with which he lamented the Uvalde shooting in Texas, in which an 18-year-old man killed 19 children and two adults.
"When are we going to do something?" Kerr yelled at the press conference after the game his team lost in Dallas. Kerr, who lost his father when he was just 19 years old, shot dead in an attack at the American University of Beirut, where he was a professor, has been visibly moved by the repeated tragedy of shooting murders in the United States. . In this sense, he has remembered the massacre of a dozen black people in Buffalo and, days later, of Asian parishioners in southern California.
"I'm tired, I'm so tired of sitting here and offering my condolences to the broken families, tired of the excuses, the minutes of silence ... enough is enough!" Kerr, the Warriors' prolific coach, said.
And it has not stopped here. Kerr has directly targeted the Republican senators for blocking a gun control law that imposes background checks on the sale of weapons, also between individuals: "There are 50 senators who refuse to vote on HR8, a bill that the Government approved two years ago.
"I ask all the senators who refuse to do anything against violence, against school shootings: are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of children? Because it is what it seems" , He has continued.
“He has been unemployed for two years and there is a reason why they do not vote in favor: to cling to power,” the Curry and Thompson Warriors coach has censored. "I want everyone who listens to me to think of their son or grandson, mother, father, brother or sister, how would you feel if today had happened to you? We cannot be insensitive to this", he added, before closing, indignantly, just before getting up and leaving: "They don't vote for him [greater gun control] to stay in power, it's pathetic, I've had enough."
The message, which the Golden State Warriors themselves have posted on Twitter, has gone viral and has been applauded by many people. Among them the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez: "Shocked at this new massacre in a Texas school, I share this heartbreaking speech by Steve Kerr, coach of the Warriors. We must stop this daily horror in the US", he has written by the head of the Spanish Executive.
Another socialist voice, such as the president of the Balearic Government, Francina Armengol, has described Kerr's speech as "very harsh, but necessary". "An example of how sport can be a great speaker of values and just causes, of improving society. The United States needs more people like him and fewer weapons, Steve Kerr MVP," she added.
In the United States, two of the main NBA figures have also spoken out, Luka Doncic and LeBron James. In fact, the Los Angeles Lakers star has also shared Kerr's speech: "Enough is enough, they are children and we put them in danger at school, at school! The place that should be safest." "This simply has to change, it has to!" the Angeleno '23' wrote on Twitter.
For his part, Doncic, a star of the Dallas Mavericks who this past morning beat Kerr's Warriors, also remembered the shooting in Texas: "I don't think there's anything worse, it's a disaster that shouldn't happen anywhere. site, I feel very sorry for what has happened".
Other American sports stars have also referred to the shooting. "This has to end," Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. "Change must come," added Micah Parsons, linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. His fellow Cowboys defensive lineman Demarcus Lawrence has directly mentioned Texas Governor, Republican Greg Abbott: "Who is going to stand up and demand that we have better security for all the schools that can't afford it on their own? Is it that our taxes don't go to those who need the most protection? It's our children! Enough is enough!"
