Written by Vince Ellis at Detroit Free Press.com
Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy noticed the quietness on this morning’s bus ride to Talking Stick Resort Arena.
He wondered whether his team was still thinking about its embarrassing 32-point loss to the Los Angeles Clippers two nights ago. But backup center Aron Baynes let him know that wasn’t it. He told Van Gundy that the players’ thoughts were on Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election Tuesday night.
That result disgusted Van Gundy. In a six-minute diatribe today, Van Gundy unloaded on the unconventional candidate who rose from being an underdog in GOP primaries to occupying the most powerful office in the world.
“I don’t think anybody can deny this guy is openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic,” Van Gundy said. “We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus, and I have problems with thinking this is where we are as a country.”
After he finished his rant, he said he didn’t feel like discussing the teams game against the Phoenix Suns.
“I didn’t vote for (George W.) Bush, but he was a good, honorable man with whom I had political differences, so I didn’t vote for him. But for our country to be where we are now, who took a guy who — I don’t care what anyone says, I’m sure they have other reasons and maybe good reasons for voting for Donald Trump — but I don’t think anybody can deny this guy is openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic and ethnic-centric, and say, ‘That’s OK with us, we’re going to vote for him anyway.’
“We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus, and I have problems with thinking that this is where we are as a country. It’s tough on (the team), we noticed it coming in. Everybody was a little quiet, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe the game the other night.’ And so we talked about that, but then Aron Baynes said, ‘I don’t think that’s why everybody’s quiet. It’s last night.’
“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. And we embrace a guy who is openly misogynistic as our leader.’ I don’t know how we get past that.
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