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Gregg Popovich did not hold back when he was asked about the intersection of sports and politics at Spurs' media day on Monday.

"Our country is an embarrassment in the world," Popovich said.

Popovich chuckled when asked about President Donald Trump rescinding the Golden State Warriors' invitation to the White House.

"I thought it was comical that it was rescinded because they weren't going to go any way," Popovich said. "It's like a sixth grader is going to have a party in his backyard and he finds out somebody might not come, so he disinvites them. Although it's disgusting, it's also comical."

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He also said that he'd never tell his players how to act during the National Anthem.

"Each one of them has the right and the ability to say what they would like to say and act the way they would like to act," Popovich said. "They have our full support. No matter what they might want to do or not to do, it is important to them to be respected by us, and there is no recrimination no matter what might take place unless it's ridiculously egregious."

Popovich once again called race "the elephant in the room" and said that white privilege needs to be talked about.

"Unless it is talked about constantly it is not going to bet better," Popovich said. "...There has to be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change."

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Popovich questioned what Trump supporters think of what's going on, and whether they are reevaluating their choices.

"I wonder what the people think about who voted for him, where their line is, how much they can take," he said. "...They wanted change, they felt ignored, they actually thought something would happen that would aid them. But at what price? That is the question."

Popovich said he was shocked at how some NASCAR owners have spoken out against their drivers protesting, specifically how Richard Childress, who was Dale Earnhardt's longtime team owner, said if anyone protests, "It'll get you a ride on a Greyhound bus." And how Richard Petty, owner of NASCAR's Petty Motorsports, said that anyone who protests should leave the country.

"That's where I live," Popovich said. "I had no idea that I lived in a country where people would actually say that sort of thing. I'm not totally naive, but I think these people have been enabled by an example that we've all been given. You've seen in Charlottesville."

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Popovich said there has been a lot of "childishness" and "gratuitous fear-mongering" and "race-baiting" in the White House, and he said at this point people need to do whatever they can to effect change.

"The bar has been lowered so far that I think it's more important to be thinking about what to do in a more organic roots base level," he said. "Thinking about the efforts to restrict voter registration, comments that demean cultures, ethnic groups, races, women. Those sorts of things."

Popovich emphasized that people need to come together now more than ever in spite of everything that is going on politically.

"You have got a choice — we can continue to bounce our heads off the wall with his conduct or we can decide the institutions of our country are more important, that people are more important, that the decent America we thought we all had and want is more important, and that we get down to business at the grassroots level and do what we have to do."