Historical social justice actions
JANUARY 1959: Minneapolis Lakers forward Elgin Baylor boycotts a neutral-site game after the team hotel in Charleston, W. Va., refused to allow him and two Black teammates to stay.
OCTOBER 1961: Boston Celtics star Bill Russell and six other Black players on the Celtics and St. Louis Hawks boycott an exhibition game in Lexington, Ky., after being refused service at a hotel restaurant.
MAY 1, 1971: Lew Alcindor changes his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after converting to Islam years earlier. “People did not want me messing with their idea of who I was or what I represented to them,” Abdul-Jabbar would later write.
1987: NBA star Alex English stars in “Amazing Grace and Chuck,” a movie about a basketball star who joins a youth baseball player in protest by refusing to play sports until countries denuclearize.
OCTOBER 1991: Chicago Bulls guard Craig Hodges attends the White House in a dashiki and hands President George H.W. Bush a letter addressing concerns with racial inequalities facing Black Americans.
MARCH 13, 1996: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is suspended by the NBA for refusing to stand for the national anthem. He called the flag “a symbol of oppression, of tyranny.” After being suspended for one game, he agreed to stand for the anthem, looking down and praying during the playing of the song.
MARCH 23, 2012: LeBron James tweets a photo of Miami Heat players with hooded sweatshirts on, hoods pulled up, in reference to the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin with the caption, “We are Trayvon Martin.”
2014: NBA players wear “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts in response to the death of Eric Garner, who was put into a chokehold by a New York police officer.
2016: Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade demand a call to action at the ESPYs.
2020: The NBA plays games with “Black Lives Matter” on the court after numerous players were involved in protesting the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor among others.