San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich says the current moment in the United States calls for a unifier, but President Donald Trump isn't that man.

"He’s not just divisive; he’s a destroyer," Popovich said of Trump to Dave Zirin in The Nation. "To be in his presence makes you die. He will eat you alive for his own purposes. I’m appalled that we have a leader who can’t say ‘Black lives matter.’ That’s why he hides in the White House basement. He is a coward. He creates a situation and runs away like a grade-schooler. Actually, I think it’s best to ignore him. There is nothing he can do to make this better because of who he is: a deranged idiot."

Popovich says that Trump's self-interest makes him incapable of acting for the greater good.

"If Trump had a brain, even if it was 99 per-cent cynical, he would come out and say something to unify people," Popovich said. "But he doesn’t care about bringing people together. Even now. That’s how deranged he is. It’s all about him. It’s all about what benefits him personally. It’s never about the greater good. And that’s all he’s ever been."

The 71-year-old Popovich says that there has been an urgency in the nationwide protests against police brutality and anti-black racism in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department because nothing ever changes, but desperately needs to.

“The thing that strikes me is that we all see this police violence and racism, and we’ve seen it all before, but nothing changes," Popovich said. "That’s why these protests have been so explosive. But without leadership and an understanding of what the problem is, there will never be change. And white Americans have avoided reckoning with this problem forever, because it’s been our privilege to be able to avoid it. That also has to change."

Popovich also places blame for the current moment at the feet of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

"In the end, what we have is a fool in place of a president, while the person who really runs the country, Senator Mitch McConnell, destroys the United States for generations to come," Popovich said. "McConnell has destroyed and degraded our judicial system. He has tried to destroy heath care. He’s destroyed the environment. He’s the master and Trump’s the stooge, and what’s funny is that Trump doesn’t even know it. Trump’s always wanted to be part of the in-group, but McConnell is an in-group of one and Trump plays the fool."

With protests ongoing during a pandemic and record unemployment in the United States, Popovich wishes for better organization that would prevent the message from being coopted.

“They are very necessary, but they need to be organized better," Popovich said. "It’s frustrating. When Dr. King did a protest, you knew when to show, when to come back the next day. But if you’re just organizing protests and everyone is coming and going in every direction, it doesn’t work that way. If it was nonviolent, they knew to be nonviolent, but this is muddled. More leadership would be very welcome so these incredible mass demonstrations can’t be used by people for other means. We can limit the bad, but only if things are organized better."