Steve Kerr, useful idiot [UPDATED]

Steve Kerr coaches the Golden State Warriors. He’s an outstanding basketball coach and, dating back to his days as a player and then an analyst on television, always struck me as a good guy.

Early on, Kerr became a strident critic of President Trump. That’s okay. It’s his right. I don’t believe in “shut up and coach.”

However, this doesn’t mean that anyone should take Kerr’s critique of Trump, or his other political views, seriously. His success as a basketball coach (and before that as a very good hoops analyst) is not an indicator of quality political commentary.

Now, Kerr has thoroughly disgraced himself in attempting defend Red China and the NBA’s kowtowing to that inhumane dictatorship. Initially asked about the matter, Kerr said, in effect, I’ll get back to you after I consult my brother-in-law, a Chinese history professor.

He would have been better advised not to get back to us, because this is what Kerr finally came up with:

None of us are perfect. People in China didn’t ask me about, you know, people owning AR-15s and mowing each other down in a mall.

Right. The NBA shouldn’t kowtow either to China or to Americans who mow down people in malls.

Kerr also mentioned America’s human rights record. Maybe he can get back to us with a comparison of free speech in the U.S. and China. Maybe he and his brother-in-law can look for contemporary cases in which our government has massacred protesters or imprisoned one million Muslims who committed no crime.

At Hot Air, Allahpundit notes that Kerr’s defense of the NBA and of China resembles President Trump’s defense of his friendship, or desire for it, with bloody Vladimir Putin. In response to a question on this subject from Joe Scarborough, Trump said: “I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe.”

Kerr can be proud to have matched one of the worst moments of his arch-enemy, Donald Trump.

Maybe “shut up and coach” will suddenly have a strange new appeal to Steve Kerr.

UUPDATE: I should have mentioned in my post that Kerr’s father, Malcolm Kerr, was a college professor who served as president of the American University of Beirut. He was assassinated by jihadists.

Steve Kerr grew up around politics and international relations. By all accounts, he’s a bright guy and, given his life story, a sympathetic one.

Yes, Kerr is a harsh critic of President Trump, but so are many other bright people of good faith.

However, Kerr’s comments on China, and his drawing of a moral equivalency between that regime and America, is profoundly disappointing — all the more so because he’s seen enough of the world to know much better.

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