On Charlottesville and President Trump, Grizzlies coach David Fizdale nails it

Take that for leadership. Take that for eloquence. Take that for an important, passionate expression of conscience when circumstances demand nothing less.

Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale blistered President Donald Trump, called those who would defend the president’s comments “sick or stupid” and called on Memphis leaders to immediately take down the statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis, in an interview Wednesday with Wendi Thomas of MLK50: Justice through Journalism.

“Take 'em down. I don’t know what the hesitation is. I don’t know what we’re waiting on,” Fizdale said. “Whatever gets those things down immediately, we got to do it. It splits people apart. It creates a public safety hazard having that thing in our city. The fact that Dr. King was killed here 50 years ago, and that the Civil Rights Museum sits here in our city, and for that to be out in the open, hanging out, where kids go, where families go, I don’t want that in our city anymore.

“For that to sit out there in the wide open in our city, I think, is a disgrace. And to our public officials, I’m challenging you to not put a bunch of red tape in front of us. Don’t create all these silly loopholes and this and that. Take it down; get it out of our city; get it out of sight; and let our city moving forward and into the future and be an example to the rest of the country. The worst thing ever in civil rights history, our greatest leader, was murdered here, but we’re going to start here to build and grow great relationships between all races right here in Memphis.”

Fizdale has been outspoken in support of civil rights since he arrived in Memphis. He has previously talked about his own experiences being profiled by police in South Central Los Angeles. But Wednesday’s interview — which was not planned, but grew out of a meeting to discuss the 50th anniversary of MLK’s death — was particularly raw and passionate.

Among Fizdale's comments:

Monuments, racism and Memphis

"Fifty years later (Martin Luther King Jr.) is speaking to us from the grave and telling us to stand up to this crap that we’re seeing, that’s festering in our country, that our president has seemed to deem OK and label as equal as people who are fighting for love and fighting hate and bigotry and all of those things. We’ve got to listen to Dr. King. There’s no way, with me being the head coach in the city of Memphis, that I will sit on the sidelines and disgrace his legacy, my grandfather’s legacy, and let somebody destroy something that we built in America that I think can be exemplary.”

“I can’t sit and watch this, not in a city where Dr. King was assassinated 50 years ago, where we have, even today in our city a statue of a known Klansman, right here in the beautiful city of Memphis with all these incredibly wonderful people. It’s unacceptable. It will no longer stand. I think you’re seeing it all over America people are not standing for it anymore. It’s a black eye on our history.”

More: Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in Memphis draws protesters overnight

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“My white grandparents fought Nazis. They met in the war. They fell in love in the war fighting Nazis, kicking Nazis' ass, actually. And now here we are 50 years later in the streets of America, Nazis are running young white women over who are standing against them. It’s just unacceptable. And so, as a leader in this community, as a person who cares about his community, and a city and the people in this city, I’m not just going (to) sit back and watch this and just be on the sidelines. So I’m getting actively involved. I think the city has seen that about me from day one, wherever it’s needed, especially when it comes to peace and justice, I’m going to be a part of that. And so I’m calling on all of our citizens to actively get involved in fixing this problem, especially our white citizens, because until this becomes absolutely unacceptable to you, it will continue.”

Charlottesville

“You know, hopefully in the process, even these people that are diseased and sick in the mind, maybe we’ll pull a couple of them back and help them change the way they feel and live their lives. In the process of showing people that killing people in the streets and hating everybody and blaming everybody because your financial situation is screwed up makes no sense. And hopefully, we can save some people out of that horrible ideology.”

“It’s disgusting (to equate the Nazi marchers with Black Lives Matter protesters). What are you talking about here? How can you even say that? You watch those people march up the street with their little — they’re so ridiculous looking with their tiki torches; they’ve actually got tiki torches; that says enough — but you see them marching up the street and what’s coming out of their mouths, and you tell me that they’re just there quietly protesting? And you’re telling me that there were some good people in that crowd?

More: Time to repeal Tennessee law, remove symbols of hate

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"You can’t say that. If you’re standing next to these people with a torch, and whether your mouth is closed or open, if they’re saying that, on the way to that march, and they’re saying that, you get out of that line. You get as far away from that line as possible. So the fact that they were in unison, marching, saying all of these things, you can’t tell me there’s a good person in there. And for (President Trump) to put those protesters that were there to stop them in the same boat as those awful, evil people that are there to just wreak havoc on that beautiful city, I’ve been to that city; Charlottesville is an awesome city.”

“If you put a Muslim in that car, what are you calling that person, right? You’re a terrorist. For this to happen and for our president to put that on the same level as people trying to fight hate and bigotry, peacefully, and standing up for their country and their city and saying this is not acceptable here, when our country went to war, and millions of people died from that war, and now you’re letting it happen on our streets? You can’t put that on the same level. For anyone who can sit there and defend his comments? You’re either stupid, honestly, you’re either just stupid or you’re sick. That’s how I’m looking at it. Sick, I mean you’re totally delusional in the mind. You’re totally like, there is something going on internally with you that’s not right. Because there’s no way you can listen to those comments, agree with what he said, and do it with a common sense logic. I’m sorry, there’s just no way I can see you saying that.”

There are doubtless people who will take issue with Fizdale’s comments. Indeed, in this overheated time, there may be some who declare they will never watch another Grizzlies game because of them.

But Fizdale has never shied away from the truth because it might hurt some feelings. He didn’t when he told Zach Randolph it was time to go to the bench and he didn't when he criticized officiating during the playoffs. He surely wasn't about to when the subject was the future of decency in America.

“I’m not waiting on the president to lead us,” Fizdale said. “I’ve never waited on him to lead us. We’ve been active in Memphis from the beginning. We’ve said it from the beginning; we’re going to amp it up even more and take care of our city from the people who live in this city and take care of the country from the citizens that live in this country.”

Fizdale closed by inviting any and all to come to the Grizzlies MLK Day celebration in 2018. Earlier this week, the NBA revealed that the Grizzlies will play a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Lakers on that day.

“We’ve got to do something lasting. We’ve got to do something impactful. We've got to do something that creates massive change,” he said. “I invite anybody who is about loving and changing things and really mending things that are going on in the country to join us in Memphis that weekend because I promise you, it will be monumental. It will be life changing. It will be country changing.”