Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy: Trump's 'scary' travel ban is 'fear-mongering'

He said he'd love for his players to speak out, too

Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy denounced U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration on Monday. He told reporters that the ban on nationals from Muslim-majority countries Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen was antithetical to American values.

From Rod Beard of the Detroit News:

"(CNN's) Fareed Zakaria had a great thing ... none of those seven nations has been responsible for an American death, but we're barring everybody from those seven. It's just playing to people's fears and prejudices."

...

"We're getting back to the days of putting the Japanese in relocation camps, of Hitler registering the Jews -- that's where we're heading. It's just fear-mongering and playing to a certain base of people that have some built-in prejudices that aren't fair," Van Gundy said. "There's no reasonable reason to do it. If they haven't been responsible for a single American fatality, how is doing it making us safer?

"That would be the question. And the answer is that it's not. But to some people, it sounds good and if you have a prejudice against Muslims in general, it sounds really good to you."

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"This stuff is real and it's scary and I think everybody should speak up," Van Gundy said. "This isn't about a person in office or anything else -- it's about policy that's antithetical to what we're supposed to be about here in America. I would love our players to speak out about that."

This is notable not only because Van Gundy is voicing his opinion, but because he's encouraging his players to do so. After the election in November, Van Gundy called Trump "openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic," then followed up by speaking with Nubyjas Wilborn of the Sporting News about the responsibility that comes with being privileged in a country where people are oppressed.

Van Gundy is far from alone in the NBA community. San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr both spoke out Sunday, and Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, coach Dwane Casey and guard Kyle Lowry joined them Monday.