MINNEAPOLIS – Sitting in front of a microphone deep inside Target Center on Monday night, Quinten Post chose his words carefully after the Warriors’ 108-83 loss.
Post was not offering up his thoughts on scoring against Rudy Gobert or the team’s 19 turnovers.
No, for the past four days, he and the team had taken up residence in Minneapolis, the epicenter of America’s war on immigration.
Post and his teammates had watched tens of thousands of protesters march down the street in sub-zero temperatures in front of their downtown Minneapolis team hotel shortly after Golden State arrived on Friday afternoon.
He was stuck in the hotel on Saturday when news broke that the game was postponed after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, and played in Sunday’s contest that was coated in a thick pall.
As a Dutch citizen, he did not want to pretend to be an expert on American legal policy.
But as a person, his feelings were clear after what he called “a crazy” few days in Minnesota.
“I’m not educated enough on the subject to say something truly smart about it, but some of the things that I see, from a human standpoint, are unacceptable,” Post said. “It looks like a witch hunt out there.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr spoke at length the day before about the prolonged occupation of Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling for less division and expressing support for the city during what he dubbed a “surreal” series of events.
When given a chance to expand on his initial thoughts, Kerr did just that after Monday’s game. Like many Americans, he had read about 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos being detained by immigration personnel while at school.
“It’s not like we’re rooting out violent criminals,” Kerr said. “They’re taking 5-year-old kindergartners and US citizens and detaining people. Immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed, but it needs to be addressed by Congress, legislatively, not by a military force in the streets pulling people from their homes.”
Pretti’s death had rocked the Minneapolis community, and what multiple players and coaches described as the city’s “weight” hung over Sunday’s game.
Multiple anti-ICE chants and iconography were encountered throughout the game, by both fans and at least two members of the in-venue entertainment team.
Monday’s game struck a different tone. There were still a number of “ICE OUT” shirts and signs floating around the arena, but the energy in the building felt more like a normal basketball game.
Perhaps, as Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski offered up, the crowd was buoyed by their Wolves winning going away, rather than the 26-point thrashing they endured the day before.
Whatever the reason, the Warriors ended their two-game, four-day stay in Minneapolis by giving the home crowd something to feel happy about before Golden State took off for Utah, where the Jazz await Wednesday.
“It was pretty crazy to be here for four straight days during all of these events, to witness everything firsthand,” Kerr said. “It was meaningful, very sad, but I’m glad we were here and able to see the people in Minneapolis and try to help them forget by playing a couple of basketball games. But it’s obviously going to take a lot more than that.”
