DANNY IS TAKING HIS SHOT
Basketball player Danny Evans from Leeds is part of a new generation of professional athletes using their platforms to stand up for their political beliefs. Chris Burn speaks to him.
I had been kind of numb to some of the things I had experienced. But it comes to a point where you can’t just ignore it and now is the time to challenge it. Danny Evans, on becoming involved with Black Lives Matter after his time in America
WHEN DANNY Evans was a 10- year- old boy living in North Leeds, he wrote a note saying ‘ I want to be a professional basketball player when I grow up’ and stuck it on his bedroom wall. Thirteen years and a lot of hard work later, he has achieved his dream and is moving from Yorkshire to Spain next week after signing to play for Bàsquet L’Hospitalet, a team based on the outskirts of Barcelona.
“It would fuel my fire a little bit and was a source of inspiration for me,” Evans, who went on to spend four years in America in the ultracompetitive world of college basketball after winning a university scholarship to the States at 18, explains of his boyhood message to himself. “I believe I am the first person from Leeds to get a scholarship to play basketball in America and then go to Europe to play professionally. When I was growing up there wasn’t a role model that had done what I had set out to do.”
Evans is at the very beginning of his professional career in Spain’s third division but like many of his generation of athletes is determined to use his sporting platform to have a political say.
After helping arrange Black Lives Matters demonstrations in Leeds following the death of George Floyd in the US, Evans will continue to support the organisation from afar.
He says that after becoming desensitised to his experiences of racism in the UK growing up - from shopkeepers following him around stores thinking he might steal something to people making assumptions about his “type of music” in nightclubs - his time in America forced him to re- evaluate.
“My experience is quite unique. Before I went out to America I was kind of numb to some of the things I had experienced here in terms of the way the system is designed to hold back or not provide as many opportunities for black people.
“When I went to America because they are much further along in terms of having those difficult conversations, I had no choice but to be educated about it. I’m mixed race – my mum is white and my dad is black. I had to educate myself on the subject and because of my experiences with racism it made me hyper- aware of the things I have experienced. I could recognise it more quickly.
“I had been numb to it. But it comes to a point where you can’t just ignore it and now is the time to challenge it.”
Evans had returned to the UK after the US college basketball season was curtailed by Covid- 19 when the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May at the hands of a police officer led to worldwide outrage and mass protests.
As with so many people, seeing the shocking footage of Floyd pleading for his life while a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $ 20 note touched a deep nerve for Evans.
“It was such a visceral event and you couldn’t help being moved by it whatever your colour.
“It was a man being murdered in from of your eyes. For me personally, it was over such a trivial thing and it felt like it could have been a friend, a family member or me in his shoes. That is what hit home.”
Evans had already had some experience of community engagement after setting up the ‘ FindYours’ project with two friends in Leeds designed to empower young people in the city to explore their passions – from music to sport to setting up their own business. They spoke to more than 1,500 children in 2019 but their plans for 2020 were cancelled because of Covid- 19. However, that experience gave him the confidence to feel he could act following the death of Floyd.
“When the death of George Floyd happened, I was speaking with my friend from the FindYours project and we were really wanting to do something. I didn’t know what we wanted to do.
“We contacted Marvina Newton from the local Black Lives Matter group and got her number through their Facebook page.”
After a conversation with her, Evans decided to get involved with the group and within two weeks had helped to organise a successful online demonstration.
He then played a key role in organising a socially- distanced protest at Hyde Park in Leeds which was attended by around 6,000 people.
“It was a small team of four of us that pulled that together. Having gone in a short space of time from not knowing Marvina or anyone else to making it happen and doing the event was just inspiring – it made me proud to be from Leeds because of the incredible response on the day.”
The BLM protests in Yorkshire and across the country were the subject of considerable criticism on the grounds that the gatherings could further spread coronavirus.
Evans says everything possible was done to reduce the potential risk on the day. “That was always something at the forefront of our minds. We were very aware that BAME people are four times more likely to die from Covid. We didn’t want to do something that would put the people we were trying to fight for at risk. Everyone wore masks on the day and we had donations of 3,000 masks that were handed out by over 100 volunteers. We made the day very, very safe.”
Evans says another common criticism of the BLM movement in the UK – the claim that racism problems in this country are either lesser or non- existent compared to what is seen in the US – was undermined by the footage of far- right activists giving Nazi salutes in London in June when over 100 people were arrested during their demonstrations in the capital. After attacks on police officers that day by those who claimed to be in the capital to defend statues, Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned what he described as “racist thuggery”.
Evans says: “It was quite telling when you saw the images of Neo- Nazis in London. It was like, to those people who said there was no racism, well there you go.”
After Premier League football resumed following lockdown, players took the knee before kick- off in every match to support the Black Lives Matter message – a move that was supported by the football authorities.
Evans says that gesture shows how far things have come in a few short years from the time when American Football quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in protest at police brutality – a demonstration that effectively ended his career as other NFL clubs refused to sign him when he became a free agent.
“I was really happy to see footballers taking the knee - they are putting their platform to positive use. Just a few years ago, Colin Kaepernick was literally the only person, he was doing it alone and he lost his career because of it.
“It is very interesting to see how things have moved on but there is still a long way to go.”