How NBA and WNBA teams are reacting
Protest of police brutality and increasingly violent responses have taken hold in America. What are players and teams saying?
Good morning.
The first major protest in honor of George Floyd, who was murdered one week ago by a Minneapolis police officer in broad daylight in an act caught on camera, was Tuesday night. There have been protests throughout America every night since, in cities big and small. The protests and the violent response to them from many police forces (including in Minneapolis) have done what once seemed impossible for any news story: it sucked all of the attention away from coronavirus. Racism in America is strong enough to beat out a pandemic.
This brewing summer of righteous discontent raises new questions about whether the NBA should bother convening in Orlando. But let’s set that aside and just look at what NBA and WNBA players and teams are saying in response to the murder of George Floyd and the protests.
Here’s every team’s most relevant tweet on the issues at hand. WNBA teams first. The league put out a … visual statement?
Dream (no statement but shared the WNBA thing, a Nike video and some coach/player comments) | Sky | Sun | Fever | Sparks | Lynx | Liberty | Mercury | Aces (shared the WNBA logo thing and the Nike video) | Storm | Wings (WNBA logo thing and Nike vid) | Mystics
And the NBA … here’s a statement from Adam Silver.
Hawks (no organizational statement but did share a story with quotes from head coach Lloyd Pierce) | Celtics | Nets | Hornets | Bulls | Cavaliers (bonus statement from GM Koby Altman and coach J.B. Bickerstaff) | Mavericks (wow, the rare case where maybe “no statement” was a better choice) | Nuggets | Pistons (no team statement but a statement from head coach Dwane Casey) | Warriors | Rockets | Pacers | Clippers (technically a “statement from Doc Rivers and the Clippers” — strongest statement any NBA team) | Lakers | Grizzlies (no statement but they’ve shared some player statements) | Heat (no statement but they’ve shared some player statements) | Bucks | Timberwolves (the Wolves have been sharing a lot of player sentiment and have basically been 100% on this since Wednesday) | Pelicans (literally nothing) | Knicks (nada) | Thunder (nope) | Magic | 76ers | Suns | Blazers | Kings | Spurs (nope) | Raptors (bonus essay from Masai Ujiri)| Jazz | Wizards
Of course, a lot of players have spoken out. Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Okogie attended Stephen Jackson’s rally in Minneapolis on Friday. Towns, you may recall, lost his mother to COVID-19.
Captain Jack, who knew George Floyd from back in Houston:
The Washington Wizards players put out a really powerful four-line statement through the team.
The best thing I’ve read from an active player is Natasha Cloud’s Players’ Tribune essay titled “Your Silence Is a Knee on My Neck.” (Both the Mystics and Mystics/Wizards franchisee Ted Leonsis shared it on Twitter.) Read it.
America’s systems of power exist so that, in 2020, George Floyd can have a knee forced on his neck by a white police officer, by someone whose job it was to serve and protect him, for almost nine minutes in broad daylight — nine minutes in broad daylight — even after he had become unresponsive. America’s systems of power exist so that an acceptable response to a cop killing George Floyd is to make excuses for the cop. America’s systems of power exist so that George Floyd, a black murder victim, can be blamed for his own damn murder.
But you know what crushes me most of all?? It’s how the systems of power in this country are built so strong, and with such prejudice, that in order for white supremacy to flourish — people don’t even have to actively be about white supremacy. They don’t have to carry the burden of being openly racist, or waste their energy on being loudly oppressive. It’s not like that at all.
All they have to do is be silent.
White male athletes are beginning to speak up. It should not be forgotten that WNBA players, especially Black WNBA players, were the first and loudest American athletes speaking out in 2014 and 2015. In fact, the Minnesota Lynx had previously had a run-in with the Minneapolis Police Department. In 2016, four cops working security at a Lynx game walked off the job because players were wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts during warm-ups. This isn’t a competition or anything. But it’s important that we acknowledge who has been doing the work over the years.
Jaylen Brown drove 15 hours from Boston to Atlanta, his hometown, to organize a protest march.
Poignant commentary from Thabo Sefolosha, whose leg was broken by New York City police outside of a nightclub in 2015 for — a jury found — no good reason.
To those who have sworn to protect and serve ALL people regardless of color, religion or sexual orientation, I say thank you. We have an institutional problem with pervasive racism. It must end now.
To those who are using the façade of a protest or march by choosing to destroy and tear down, I challenge you to be better. As I tell my players, I’m not calling you out, I’m calling you up. Destruction of property and life is NOT the answer.
It IS time to raze the institutional foundations of racism and segregation within politics, law enforcement and society at large. It must happen NOW.
Yes, protests often are used as an excuse for some to take advantage, just as when fans celebrating a hometown sports team championship burn cars and destroy storefronts. I don’t want to see stores looted or even buildings burn. But African Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer. Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands. But we have to stay vigilant, because it’s always still in the air.
I’m giving to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. I encourage you to join me, if you can.
Love one another.