Spurs' Gregg Popovich calls for gun control in U.S., criticizes lawmakers

DALLAS — San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich's pregame media availability Sunday opened with the NBA's all-time wins leader declining to discuss whether he would consider retirement this offseason and ended with an unprompted, passionate speech lobbying for gun control legislation in America and criticizing «cowardly legislators who are selfish.»

Popovich, 74, has expressed strong opinions on gun control and other political issues frequently in recent years. He made a point to bring up the subject as his media session before the Dallas Mavericks game seemed to be wrapping up, asking whether anyone in the room was carrying a firearm.

«I just wondered because we have a governor and lieutenant governor and an attorney general that made it easier to have more guns,» Popovich said, referring to Texas politicians. «That was a response to our kids getting murdered. I just thought that was a little bit strange decision. It's just me, though.»

During a speech that lasted more than nine minutes, Popovich criticized several Republican legislators, particularly in Texas and Tennessee. He expressed outrage about the expulsion of Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Tennessee House of Representative after the pair of Black Democrats led gun control demonstrations on the chamber floor last week in the wake of a school shooting in Nashville.

«Well, since you asked, what would it take to budge those people? What would it take?» Popovich said. «I mean, we've got two young Black guys in Tennessee who just got railroaded by a bunch of people that I would bet down deep in their soul want to go back to Jim Crow. And what they just did is a good start. It's beyond comprehension. And what were they guilty of? They actually