NBA STAR’S PLEDGE TO FIGHT RACISM

HIS goal is as tall as he is but former Mareeba youth turned NBA star Aron Baynes (left) has promised to do all he can to help fight for equality in an open letter published directly to fans. Baynes’ pledge came as an autopsy revealed George Floyd, the black American whose death has triggered violent US protests, had tested positive for COVID-19 before he died.

MAREEBA’S NBA star Aron Baynes has promised to do all he can to help the fight for equality in an open letter published directly to fans.

“They say ignorance is bliss. I say bulls---,” Baynes wrote.

“Ignorance is an excuse and a crutch my friends, and it is what will drag this world under if we’re not careful.

“Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.

“I grew up ignorant. I grew up uneducated. I grew up as part of the problem – part of the white majority in a small Australian town.

“Don’t mistake me. I didn’t dislike any certain individual because of their race or culture. But I didn’t support them either, which was just as bad.”

The death of George Floyd has sparked protests around the world, and elite athletes and organisations have added their voices to highlight the importance of equality.

Baynes was born in Gisborne, New Zealand, but moved to Mareeba at a young age.

He attended school at the Tablelands town before moving to Cairns State High School as a teenager, where he joined the school’s basketball program. He eventually went to the Australian Institute of Sport, then went to college at Washington State University in 2006.

Baynes’s professional playing career started in Europe in 2009, where he played four seasons before joining the San Antonio Spurs in 2013.

Stints at Detroit and Boston followed before he was traded to the Phoenix Suns last year.

The Suns centre’s comments continue the wave of similar sentiments expressed by elite athletes as protests for equality take place across the world.

Baynes wrote it was when he was a teenager he better understood racism and its forms.

“It was around the age of 16 that I was old enough to understand that racism came in all shapes and sizes,” he wrote.

“It could be loud and proud, but worse yet it could run as silent as the cool waters of a river quietly swallowing people up.”

The NBA is planning to resume in the next few months.