Glenn Anton “Doc” Rivers, the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers recently revealed that simply hearing the phrase “America First” scares him.
Doc Rivers via NBC Sports Philadelphia YouTube
Rivers revealed his fear when he spoke to the Associated Press about his potential to run for political office, his coach practices, and more.
Rivers shot down the idea that he would run for political office telling the outlet, “Oh God, no. I wouldn’t win, number one, And number two, that’s not what I want to be.”
Doc Rivers via Philadelphia 76ers YouTube
While he claims he has no plans to run for political office that isn’t stopping him from becoming political and using his position as the 76ers coach to push his political goals.
He explained to the AP why he has become so political lately, “I’ve always been aware of politics, I’ve always been involved. But what got me involved is, we have this separation of race now, of pitting races against each other.”
Doc Rivers via NBC Sports Philadelphia YouTube
Ironically, Rivers seemingly pushed this separation as he revealed not only that he’s scared of the phrase America First, but explained why, “When you hear, ‘America first,’ that scares me, because I’m a Black man and that’s not including me.”
He elaborated, “I want us to all be included. I want us all to function with each other.”
Doc Rivers via Philadelphia 76ers YouTube
As for his political goals he explained one of them is to completely ban guns in order to solve shooting deaths, “Obviously, if anybody knew the answer, we would try to find the answer there, you know, other than taking guns off the street, but that’s too political. So we’ve got to figure it out.”
He also wants police reform saying, “Our training has to be better. The thing that bothers me is that everyone should want that, including the police.” He didn’t specifically detail what the reform looks like.
However, he serves on the NBA’s National Basketball Social Justice Coalition that claims one of their main initiatives is policing and they want to eliminate bias, ensure accountability, and build stronger community relationships. Again, it’s a bunch of platitudes without any actual specifics. The group did specifically endorse the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Doc Rivers via NBC Sports Philadelphia YouTube
Another one of his goals is history education, “Teaching American history is under assault right now. And it’s not Black history or teaching about slavery, it’s American history.”
“And so I was amazed,” Rivers said. The first thing that I was taught the other day was, how many players, and not only players, coaches, came up to me and said, ‘Wow, I never was taught that in my history class.’”
He further detailed, “You should know your history. You really should. Could you imagine if we were not taught the history of Germany and the Holocaust? There really is no difference. I want to make sure we’re taught the same history.”
Doc Rivers via Philadelphia 76ers YouTube
YouTuber John Matrixx of Black and White Sports reacted to Rivers’ comments specifically his comments about America First saying, “When I hear America First I’m thinking America for Americans regardless of their skin color.”
“But Doc Rivers says he’s a black man so is he saying that he’s not American? I mean is he actually really, really saying this? Because Doc Rivers you are a U.S. citizen. You have benefited and achieved greatness. You won a NBA title. You’re pretty well off. You’re pretty rich. You have a wonderful job, but you say that America First does not include you. This is ridiculous.”
Matrixx went on to assert that he believes Rivers is trying to “indoctrinate” his players.
“He’s trying to indoctrinate these players especially these younger players to make them feel like victims. Don’t fall for this. You are not a victim,” he says.
Doc Rivers via Philadelphia 76ers YouTube
What do you make of Rivers’ revelation that he’s afraid of America First?