RAPTORS SPEAK OUT
NBA team joins racism fight
When Dwane Casey gathered his players together for their first meeting of training camp, they talked about something bigger than basketball.
Racial tension was exploding in the U.S. and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the Star-Spangled Banner was spreading like a prairie fire.
The Toronto Raptors — facing issues not unlike Casey did growing up during the civil rights movement of the 1960s — wanted to join the growing chorus of protest.
Casey was moved by his players’ remarks that day.
“Terrence Ross, who everyone thought was really quiet, had some very thoughtful and impactful statements and thoughts on the whole issue that you would never think,” Casey said.
“I was really proud of the way our players had opinions and had thought them out, very respectful yet thought-provoking statements that they made.”
Raptors all-star DeMar DeRozan also spoke on media day about a close family friend who was recently killed by police, shot 17 times.
Kaepernick has become one of the biggest stories in sports since he first took a knee for the anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality against African-Americans. Others have followed suit, from the WNBA’s Indiana Fever to college and even high school teams.
If athletes, with their legions of fans, are in a unique position to speak up, Casey is all for his players making their voices heard.
The 59-year-old coach was raised by his grandparents in Morganfield, Ky., a town that was largely racially segregated until an effort at integration, when he was in Grade 4, forced him to ride a bus across town to school.
He went on to become one of the first black players at the University of Kentucky.
“I’ve lived it, I know it, I know how (the players) are feeling, what they’re going through, what they’re seeing,” Casey said in an interview after a recent morning practice.
The Raptors played the first game of the NBA’s pre-season, against Golden State in Vancouver, and thus became the first team in the league to protest the anthem. They stood together with linked arms, and have done so in every game since. They open the regular season at home Wednesday night against Detroit Pistons.
Not everyone was a fan of the demonstration.
“Some people got upset because they thought it was disrespecting the police,” Casey said. “But believe me, it’s no disrespect to the police force. As a matter of fact (secondyear guard) Delon Wright’s mother is a police officer, and we were very cognizant of that and respectful of that.”
The NBA, which is composed of about 75 per cent black players, is considered the most progressive of North American pro sports. The league relocated the 2017 allstar game from Charlotte to New Orleans over a North Carolina bathroom law that discriminated against transgender people.
Commissioner Adam Silver said last week that he hopes players continue to stand for the national anthem, but said “there may be no organization in our society better positioned than the NBA” to make an impact on the social climate.
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