Doc Rivers Fights Tears On Jacob Blake, 'You Don't Need to Be Black to Be Mad'
Doc Rivers Fights Tears On Jacob Blake 'You Don't Need to Be Black to Be Outraged'
An emotional Doc Rivers choked back tears as he talked about the Jacob Blake police shooting on Tuesday -- explaining why Black people are pissed and railing against republicans.
"It's amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back," Rivers said.
"It's really so sad. Like, I should just be a coach. I'm so often reminded of my color. It's just really sad. We got to do better. But, we got to demand better."
The L.A. Clippers coach had refused to talk about the shooting BEFORE the playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks "because it's so hard to keep watching it."
But, after the game, the emotions poured out of the 58-year-old, who interestingly enough, used to be friends with Donald Trump.
"If you watch that [Jacob Blake] video, you don’t need to be Black to be outraged. You need to be American and outraged."
"All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear," Rivers said while referring to the Republican National Convention.
"We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot. We're the ones that we're denied to live in certain communities. We've been hung. We've been shot. And, all you do is keep hearing about fear."
Doc says he's not anti-cop -- his father was a police officer -- but he demands changes when it comes to training, especially when it comes to policing the Black community.
"The training has to change in the police force. The unions have to be taken down in the police force," Rivers said.
"My dad was a cop. I believe in good cops. We’re not trying to defund the police and take all of their money away. We’re trying to get them to protect us just like they protect everybody else."
