‘It’s time for us to do something about it.’ Kings, Warriors call to fight gun violence
Steve Kerr knew the question was coming. He knew exactly what he was going to say.
The Golden State Warriors coach had these discussions before, countless times. The frustration on his face was easily discernible. He was going to have to talk about it again. An NBA coach, who talks to the media almost daily, had to address the issue of gun violence in light of another tragedy.
“It’s just time,” Kerr said Sunday before the Warriors played the Kings at the Golden 1 Center. “It’s time for us to do something about it, instead of have another moment of silence and send thoughts and prayers.”
That was how Kerr capped his answer that lasted nearly four minutes about the shooting Sunday morning in downtown Sacramento, blocks from where Kerr spoke, that killed six and injured at least 12 more.
His overarching point: “thoughts and prayers” and moments of silence before sporting events aren’t enough, and no matter how much he — or any other prominent figure in sports, pop culture or politics — talks about mass shootings, they still happen all over the country at a terrifying rate.
“I know we’ll have a moment of silence before the game,” Kerr said. “I think it’s the right thing to do to have a moment of silence. But I’ll be honest, this is probably the ninth or tenth moment of silence I’ve experienced since being coach of the Warriors. When we mourn the losses, people who have died in mass shootings, so I don’t think moments of silence are going to do anything.”
Kerr, of course, is a strong advocate for gun control legislation. His father was killed by gunfire in Beirut in 1984 and he’s devoted a significant portion of his non-basketball life to fight for common-sense gun laws. He walked out of his pregame news conference Sunday after just two questions relating to Sunday’s shooting, saying any basketball talk would wait until after the game (the Warriors won, 109-90, eliminating the Kings from postseason contention for an NBA record 16th straight season).
Kerr mentioned state Rep. Mike Thompson of Napa’s proposed legislation to require background checks that passed through the State Assembly but was voted down in the Senate, “despite the fact that 80 to 90% of Americans support background checks,” he said.
“This happens in churches, in happens in schools, it happens right downtown here in Sacramento,” Kerr continued. “... So at some point, I would hope that we would actually think about our fellow citizens and do something about it, instead of play politics. Because that’s all we do. We have more regulations for driving a car than we do for carrying a weapon. It’s no problem to just go and buy and semiautomatic rifle and, yet, you want to drive a car, what do you have to do? You have to apply for it, you have to get a license, you have to go through training. It’s just the same stuff, over and over and over again.”
There was an increased police presence around Golden 1 Center for Sunday’s game, which was roughly three blocks from the 1000 block of K Street where the shooting happened. The game was never at risk of getting postponed. Both Kerr and Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry said they were reassured by security that there was no risk.
Gentry shared Kerr’s sentiments.
“The gun (legislation) has to change,” Gentry said. “To be able to have accessibility to guns, in general, especially automatic weapons, this my personal opinion. It’s a sad day, it’s a really sad day. And I hope this is not something that our city is remembered for, because it’s a great place for a lot of great people that live here.”
The sixth deaths from the shooting at 2 a.m. Sunday mark the worst mass shooting in the city’s history, and it came weeks after David Mora killed his three daughters and another man in a church before shooting himself.
An unnamed Kings player covered the costs for funeral services after that tragedy. Players on Sunday spoke about finding ways to contribute to victims dealing with the latest shooting.
“We can use our platform,” Kings guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “We can come together, we can brainstorm about different ideas, different things we can do to help, one, the families that are grieving, and two, how to make a change. I think that’s something that we’ll do and we’ll continue to do in the future.”
Kings forward Harrison Barnes sat down in his chair for his postgame media scrum and immediately flipped over the box score from the loss to the Warriors. The 10-year NBA veteran, like Kerr, knew the questions that were coming, and shared a similar level of frustration.
“My time being in Sacramento, I’ve never witnessed anything like that before. I think just, whether it was talking to the team or just talking to people who are just around the arena throughout the day, it just has a ripple effect throughout the community, seeing something like that,” Barnes said.
“It’s senseless, it’s unnecessary, we have to get to a place, I think, as a society when these type of mass shootings, these type of tragedies, aren’t just something that happened on a weekly basis, not necessarily in Sacramento but around the country.”
Sunday morning’s shooting came within earshot of where the Kings play, which serves as a reminder that these shootings are real beyond headlines. They prove, over and over again, they can happen anywhere.
“I think the biggest thing is just how close to home it could be,” Barnes said. “These things you take for granted sometimes, just being able to just get in your car to go home, get in your car to go to the gym, get in your car, go out to eat and things like that.
“I think for us, who have this platform, it’s important for us to one, speak to these issues. Two, for those who feel inclined, obviously reaching out to the families an offering support or maybe other things. Three, it’s getting to a place where, I don’t know how many times I’ve been, in my 10 years in the league, been in this seat talking about all these different things.
“And the sad thing about it, over the course of 10 years, the frequency of what I can continue to talk about is increasing. As athletes, we do have a platform to speak about these things and hopefully try to further the conversation past thoughts and prayers, and more towards action of how we can stop this.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 4:31 AM.
