Mark Wiedmer
The words jumped from the transcript of South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin’s news conference following his team’s Sunday night victory over Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament’s East Regional.
Asked about what happened outside the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C., prior to that 88-81 victory – a small group of protesters displayed a Confederate flag in the same state where that flag formerly being flown at the capitol led the NCAA to keep its championships from being played in South Carolina for more than a decade – Martin said the following:
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s America. People have freedoms to do whatever they want to do with themselves and their property.”
He then added: “There’s things out there that I don’t like. But I can’t force people to do what I want them to do. All I know is this unbelievable university and state has taken in a son of Cuban immigrants that’s married to a Jamaican woman, has mixed kids, and they’ve treated me like I’m one of their own from day one.”
Not exactly the words you might have expected to roll off the tongue of the seemingly rough, tough Martin, are they?