Fizdale the Kaepernick of coaches
In September 2017, David Fizdale, thencoach of the Memphis Grizzlies was asked what would happen if his team wanted to take a knee. The new Knicks coach did not hesitate. “Absolutely,” Fizdale said. “There’s no gray area today. I’ll be on my knee.”
In New York City, “FIZ: I’LL BE ON MY KNEE!” is back page gold, and sports talk radio marathon material. But in Memphis, it’s a one-day muted story of “Fizdale speaks out on Anthem Protests.”
“When these guys are on the right side of history,” Fizdale continued, “who am I to not stand with them and back them in a time when they can face a lot of criticism and a lot of backlash for it. So I’m in the trenches with these guys. Whatever they decide to do, I’ll be right there with them.”
This is the leader that the New York Knicks just hired.
Do you think Carmelo Anthony could have used this guy in his corner when he was out in the Baltimore streets marching for justice for Freddie Gray or calling for police accountability?
Can you imagine such a statement of solidarity under the previous petty leadership of Phil Jackson? Me neither. Fizdale is the anti-Phil. He is the Colin Kaepernick of coaches.
Here are a couple of Fizdale snippets that you may have missed after a bunch of Nazis descended on Charlottesville:
“Fifty years later (Martin Luther King Jr.) is speaking to us from the grave and telling us to stand up to this crap that we’re seeing, that’s festering in our country, that our president has seemed to deem OK.”
And on Memphis’ Confederate Statues: “Take ’em down. I don’t know what the hesitation is. I don’t know what we’re waiting on. I don’t want that in our city anymore.”
As a sports figure, Fizdale has lacked the media megaphone afforded to other refreshingly outspoken NBA coaches such as Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr and Stan Van Gundy. And who is to blame for that? Me. And others like me who have never written a word on Fizdale’s incredible social leadership. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware of 70% of the contents of this article until a day ago. Shame on me for not paying closer attention.
A great primer on Fizdale’s hidden activism comes from his post-Charlottesville interview with Wendi Thomas via the Memphis Commercial Appeal, NBA.com’s David Aldridge in September, and Marc Spears’ 2016 Undefeated column on his upbringing in South Central, L.A., where as a teen, he was pulled over by police “four times a week.”
For the mathematically challenged, that’s over 200 times a year.
In photos that his wife, Natasha Sen-Fizdale tweeted, Fizdale can be seen wearing shirts that say “Honor King: End Racism,” and “Black Lives Matter” while posing next to a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former slave trader and very first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
“I can’t sit and watch this,” said Fizdale, “not in a city where Dr. King was assassinated 50 years ago, where we have, even today in our city a statue of a known Klansman, right here in the beautiful city of Memphis, with all these incredibly wonderful people. It’s unacceptable. It will no longer stand.”
Fizdale’s community activism is widespread, and no solo act.
“When it comes to women’s rights and domestic violence issues that plague our community,” says Fizdale, “we’re deep into that stuff. My wife did the Girls’ Summit.”
Besides his marriage, Fizdale’s activism has deep family roots.
“I’m a mixed guy,” Fizdale says. “My white grandparents served in the military... And I think of my (black) grandfather and his brothers who fled Jim Crow and went to L.A. to try and get a better life.”
“My white grandparents fought Nazis. They met in the war. They fell in love in the war fighting Nazis, kicking Nazis’ ass, actually. And now here we are 50 years later in the streets of America, Nazis are running young white women over who are standing against them. It’s just unacceptable.”
Of course, Fizdale was referring to Heather Heyer, the young woman killed in Charlottesville when a Nazi ran her over with a car.
It was after Charlottesville when Fizdale began the first of many ongoing public demands to rid Memphis of Confederate statues.
“Are there statues of Hitler all throughout Germany?” Fizdale posed. “No. You’re not going to do that to your citizens. It’s just an awful look for our city. You add to that Dr. King was assassinated here, and I feel like (the statues are) honoring people, whether they did it personally or not, the people that killed him.”
Fizdale also didn’t mince words when discussing the lack of leadership of Donald Trump.
“You want to talk about disrespecting our military. Go through his tweets,” Fizdale said while noting Trump’s denouncement of John McCain, and proposed military ban of transgender Americans.
“It’s disgusting. How can you even say that?” — On Trump equating Nazis with counter-protesters
“I’m not waiting on the president to lead us. I’ve never waited on him to lead us.”
A recurring theme of Fizdale’s is that leadership begins with himself.
“There’s no way, with me being the head coach in the city of Memphis, that I will sit on the sidelines and disgrace (Dr. King’s) legacy, my grandfather’s legacy, and let somebody destroy something that we built in America that I think can be exemplary.”
What stands out most about Fizdale’s activism is his absolute fearlessness.
After five titles, Popovich is untouchable NBA royalty. Kerr won two titles in the superliberal Bay Area. Stan Van Gundy has been to the Finals and is also the Pistons GM. While these white coaches deserve credit for using their platforms, their careers were still safe.
Fizdale had no such job security, and his courage without leverage has yet to be celebrated. He was a black man in Memphis with a little more than one year as a head coach under his belt. He just wanted the Grand Wizard out of his damn city.
To paraphrase Malcolm X, Fizdale’s sincerity is his greatest credential.
“I know I may be risking it with some that aren’t in the fan base,” said Fizdale, “but I don’t really care.”