Grizzlies' Fizdale speaks out on Trump, Charlottesville, confederate monuments

Known for his 'take that for data' rant, the Grizzlies coach touched on a number of important topics

Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale isn't afraid to speak his mind. The most notable example of that came during the 2017 NBA playoffs, when he ranted about officiating following a first-round loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and spawned a meme in the process.

On Wednesday, Fizdale voiced his opinion in an interview with Wendi Thomas of MLK50, speaking eloquently on a number of topics at the forefront of the national conversation, decrying the racism rampant in the country today, including the "Unite The Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to deadly violence in the city, harshly criticizing President Donald Trump's response to those events, and urging city leaders in Memphis to remove confederate monuments.

Below are a few of his comments. Via the Commercial Appeal:

On the racism festering in the country:

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 any more. It's a black eye on our history."

On Charlottesville and President Trump's response:

"It's disgusting (to equate the Nazi marchers with Black Lives Matter protesters). What are you taking 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? 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 was 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, Charlottsville is an awesome city."

On confederate monuments:

 "Take 'em down (the monuments). I don't know what the hesitation is, I don't know what we're waiting on .. 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 any more. ... But 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 loops holes, and this and that, take it down, get it out of our city, get it out of sight, and let our city move forward and into the future and be an example to the rest of the country of where 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."

You can watch Fizdale's full interview here.