“I always go back to when I was hired,” Pierce said. “As a head coach, you assume certain responsibilities of leadership for the city that you coach in. We represent the city of Atlanta, and we all know the history of Atlanta, and what this city means, this amazing city, and what it means to be here and be from here and to live here. And so you assume the responsibility of leadership. And so this is a call to action, and this is a call to action for all leaders in this city to step up, to speak out and to try and be a part of the solution. So I just felt that we have a huge platform here in the city of Atlanta, and we need to be part of the solution in any way that we can, and all of us do, from our owner to our CEO, to our GM, to myself, to our players, to the employees. As a leader, you have to exemplify what’s necessary.”