Heat’s Erik Spoelstra on violence against Asian-Americans: ‘It really is heartbreaking’
.JPG "Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra reacts during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Tampa.")
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the NBA’s first Asian-American coach, opened his pregame session with the media on Friday by condemning the recent trend of nationwide violence against Asian-Americans.
“Look, I’m Asian-American. I’m proud to be Asian-American,” Spoelstra said before Friday night’s home game against the Indiana Pacers. “Seeing what’s happening with another just outright form of racism and hatred really is sickening and breaks my heart. It’s despicable. I think more people have to be made aware of this. It really is irrelevant who you are or what you are, you have to see that this is wrong. It really is heartbreaking and it just shows you where we are. There is hatred abundantly still out there and people feel empowered to attack the Asian community. I just pray in my heart that this can stop.”
A white gunman was charged Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors — most of them women of Asian descent.
Spoelstra, who is of Filipino descent from his mother’s side of the family, called the recent attacks “pure hatred.”
“Look, if you grow up Asian, you definitely hear derogatory terms at some point growing up,” Spoelstra added. “You hope that as you get older that that is a thing of the past, but it clearly is not. It really is horrifying to think that people are being targeted just based on race, and ignorantly being attacked and blamed for something.”
The Heat released a statement on Friday afternoon before Spoelstra’s comments that read: “The recent spate of attacks on Asian-Americans is reprehensible and extremely upsetting to us. A hateful act of violence committed against one of us is an act of violence committed against all of us. And it has to stop. We condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms and we stand with our friends in the Asian-American community.”
