SAN ANTONIO – Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich spoke out Sunday against President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.
Speaking to reporters before the Spurs played the Dallas Mavericks, Popovich said, in part:
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"Obviously the rollout today was Keystone Kops-like by any measure with objectivity. Whether you want to say it's good or bad is irrelevant. But it was Keystone Kops, and that's scary.”
The Spurs currently have five international players on the roster, but none who are subject to the immigration order.
The NBA contacted the State Department on Saturday and released a statement that read:
"We have reached out to the State Department and are in the process of gathering information to understand how this executive order would apply to players in our league who are from one of the impacted countries," an NBA spokesman said. "The NBA is a global league, and we are proud to attract the very best players from around the world.”
The executive order signed Friday by President Trump bans people from Iraq, Syria, Ian, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from entering the United States.
The ban extends to permanent legal U.S. residents and those with valid visas.
A federal judge issued an emergency order Saturday night that temporarily bars the United States from deporting people from nations subject to Trump's travel ban.
Popovich has been critical of Trump since his presidential campaign and some of the actions that the president has taken since he took office.