Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl accused Barack Obama of ‘dividing’ America over race in a brutal verdict on the former president’s legacy.
Pearl has been in charge of the Tigers since 2014 and has won more games than any other Auburn coach in history. In recent months, however, he has been linked with a move into the Senate.
During an appearance on Outkick with Dan Dakich, Pearl claimed that part of his job is to inspire his players to believe that they can achieve anything – both on and off the court.
‘I’m trying to teach my guys: I don’t want you working at Subway, I want you owning five of them,’ he said. ‘In many ways, Barack Obama told a different story.’
Pearl suggested, in fact, that Obama – America’s first African American president, who served between 2009 and 2017 – did more harm than good when it comes to race relations.
‘I get so frustrated when I hear what a terrible country we are. How racist we are, how this is not the land of opportunity for everybody,’ the Tigers coach said.
Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl accused Barack Obama of ‘dividing’ America over race
Obama, America’s first African American president, served in the White House from 2009-17
‘We have a lot to work on and there is racism that absolutely does exist and it’s wrong. But it’s a lot better for my players than it was for their fathers or their father’s fathers.
‘And so I want my guys to recognize there are going to be obstacles but not roadblocks. And that’s what Barack Obama did… I disagree with so many of his policies.Â
‘I thought in so many ways, rather than uniting us as a country, even by race, he divided us. Everything was black and white, everything was (about) the obstacles that were against my players from being successful.’
Pearl knew that his comments were likely to spark a backlash from Obama supporters, claiming: ‘It’s hard to criticize him though because you get a lot of feedback that’s really, really negative.’
And tennis legend Martina Navratilova was among those who disagreed with the Auburn coach.Â
‘This kind of logic is no different from men saying the woman who was raped asked for it because she wore a skirt,’ she wrote on X. ‘Racists need to stop being racist, black people cannot do that for them.’
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College basketball coach Bruce Pearl slams Barack Obama in brutal takedown of ex-president