I was really just trying to point out that he was trivializing NASA. Maybe a private entity will beat them there, maybe not. But they're clearly far from being an incapable organization and still achieve plenty of cutting edge, "world-first" scientific data gathering, engineering research, etc..
As a side note. I'm willing to bet they will be the first (with collaboration between the other space agencies as they often do).
Edit: Plus, I don't know of any other deep space crew carrier that currently exists. It sounds to me like they have a head start since they already have one in their possession, albeit untested.
I don't see him making any reference to non-NASA entities at all. All he said is that a trip to Mars made by somebody, anybody, might happen someday, but the odds of sufficient financial support for this attempt are poor.
Edit: I see he has other replies that clarify that this is exactly what he's thinking. "I'm fairly confident that I'll see humans on Mars before I die. I just don't believe NASA will be behind the effort." I still maintain that this is not indicated in the original comment, but that starts to become unimportant.
I happen to disagree with his analysis, however, because he's not taking non-government entities like SpaceX into account.