A jury found former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of George Floyd Tuesday and Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy called it "an important day for for our country."
"Got a got a great text from Lloyd Pierce that he sent out to all the head coaches, you know, basically reminding us that the Coaches Committee for Social Justice started over the George Floyd incident, and that inspiring us all and imploring us all to continue to to fight that this certainly wasn't the end," he said.
Van Gundy said justice was done but added it was hard for him to celebrate.
"It's hard to celebrate because it doesn't bring back George Floyd," he said.
"And so we had somebody needlessly killed right in front of us, right in front of all of us because we could see it on video. And no verdict is going to change that.
"And so while it's just, it's hard to celebrate. And then it's also hard to celebrate because we've had other incidents just like it since the time that George Floyd got killed."
Van Gundy added that he hopes this leads to real change in policing.
"It was just verdict, but will it have larger implications? Will it force us or at least motivate us to explore better policing and solving the immense problem of racial Justice? Is it going to do any of that?
"Is it going to move us forward on any of that, or is just this just an isolated verdict on one where we had clear video evidence?"