USA Basketball’s men’s team may be preparing for exhibition games in Abu Dhabi, but the shocking news from the United States of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has reverberated strongly.
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As the team readies for the 2024 Paris Olympics, head coach Steve Kerr expressed his deep dismay over the incident.
“This is a time where we feel very proud to represent our country wearing USA on our chest, competing in the Olympics,”Kerr stated on Sunday, as reported by ESPN.
“We’ve talked to the players about how important it is to show the best version of us as human beings to represent our country in a respectful, dignified manner. It makes you want to do that even more so, because this is really shameful for us to sit here and think about what happened and what’s going on in our country.”
Kerr, who has long been vocal against gun violence in the U.S., has a personal connection to the issue; his father, Malcolm Kerr, was assassinated in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1984.
Reflecting on the recent events, he remarked, “It’s such a demoralizing day for our country, and it’s yet another example of not only our political division but also gun culture.
A 20-year-old with an AR-15 trying to shoot the former president. It’s hard to process everything, and it’s scary to think about where this goes because of the issues that already exist in the country. So this is a terrible day. Thank God Trump wasn’t hit, but it’s just so demoralizing in every which way.”
Team USA learned of the event on Sunday morning.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Martina Strong, addressed the team in a pre-scheduled meeting, emphasizing the gravity of the situation.
“All the conversations around the election and the state of politics in our country, and then you have a situation like this, which just [evokes] a lot of emotions around things that we need to correct as a people,” said Stephen Curry, reflecting the somber mood.
“Obviously, gun control first and foremost, because the fact that that’s even possible for somebody to have an attack like that. But just more so you want to [see] positivity and hope. It sounds cheesy, but it’s real. That’s when our country’s at its best, and it just adds another blemish to what’s going on. So sad is just the word.”
The team will continue their preparations in the Middle East, with games against Australia and Serbia scheduled before heading to Paris.
The Olympic opening ceremony is set for July 26, with Team USA’s first game against Serbia on July 28.
“Obviously what we’re doing is very trivial, just playing basketball, but we want to put our best selves out there to try to give people a glimpse of what our country can be about,” Kerr concluded.
“And then you hear something like this and it’s just so demoralizing and obviously so sad.”
