Gregg Popovich Praises Colin Kaepernick for Doing 'A Very Patriotic Thing'

Colin Kaepernick became a source of national controversy when he knelt during the national anthem before NFL games in protest against racial inequality and police brutality in the 2016 season. His detractors claimed it was disrespectful to the country and unpatriotic, but San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich disagreed on Tuesday.

"That was a very patriotic thing he did," Popovich told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. "He cared about his country enough to fix some things that were obvious, that everybody knows about but does nothing about."

Popovich went into more detail on exercising free speech in an effort to enact change, even if it means criticizing the United States:

"Because someone hugs a flag doesn't mean they're patriotic. Being a patriot is somebody that respects their country and understands that the best thing about our country is that we have the ability to fix things that have not come to fruition for a lot of people so far.

"All the promises in the beginning when the country was established is fantastic, but those goals have not been reached yet for a lot of people. So you can still be patriotic and understand that there still needs to be criticism and changes and more attention paid to those who do not have what other people do have, and that's where we've fallen short in a lot of different ways. Being a critic of those inequalities does not make you a non-patriot. It's what makes America great, that you can say those things and attack those things to make them better. That's what a lot of other countries don't have. You lose your freedom when you do that."

Popovich made his comments after a Team USA practice. The Spurs head coach also serves as the Team USA head coach and will lead a talented, if depleted, sqaud into this summer's FIBA World Cup, which starts August 31.

It isn't the first time Popovich has praised Kaepernick. In February, he called the former NFL quarterback "courageous" and said he believes Kaepernick's actions will one day be remembered in the same way the protests of athletes such as Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Muhammad Ali are now lauded despite being controversial in their time.

Kaepernick, 31, has been without an NFL job the past three years, even suing the NFL—and eventually settling—for collusion, claiming that the league owners had conspired to blackball him from the league after his protests. 

After initially sitting during the anthem, Kaepernick amended his form of protest at the behest of Nate Boyer, a former Green Beret who suggested that kneeling would be more respectful to military members.

Despite finding that middle ground, Kaepernick still became a figure of national controversy, even if people like Popovich believe his actions were heroic.