For Nets’ Vaughn, protests bring back memories of L.A.
Nets interim head coach Jacque Vaughn still has vivid memories of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Rodney King was an unarmed Black man suspected and later arrested for drunk driving who was chased down L.A.’s Interstate-210 by police cars. King was subsequently beaten to a pulp by police officers with batons. Three of the officers were white.
The video was recorded by someone on a nearby balcony and sent to a local TV station, where it aired for the world to see. While all four of the officers responsible for King’s beating were tried on police brutality charges, three were acquitted and the jury failed to reach a verdict on the fourth.
Hours after the ruling, the protests in the city turned into riots.
“The week after that, me being in school, a lot of the places that I had grown up walking to — stores, establishments that were really native to my upbringing, weren’t there anymore, and (that) left a lasting impression on me,” Vaughn said in an interview on YES Network. “So, I am definitely in a position where a lot of memories have been kind of regurgitated.”
Regurgitated is an understatement. George Floyd’s death sparked nationwide outrage, protests and, in some cases, riots. Floyd was killed when a Minneapolis Police Department officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds while arresting him. Breonna Taylor was killed in Louisville by officers who raided her apartment with a no-knock warrant and used a battering ram to break down the door before shooting her “at least eight times” in pursuit of a suspect who had already been located somewhere else.
Floyd and Taylor’s deaths are not outliers. It is a problem the country continues to face in relations between police officers and the Black community.
Vaughn, one of the NBA’s eight Black head coaches, has two sons, meaning he has to raise two Black men in a time when Black men continue to be disproportionately targeted by police officers across the country.
“It’s been interesting,” he said on YES Network. “I have two teenage young men who are seeing this atmosphere for the first time, so it’s been interesting having conversations with them, discussing language with them, discussing movies, terminology, things that we did not discuss at the dinner table earlier, but now we have been able to have those tough conversations.” He’s also part of a franchise that has been outspoken on social issues. The Nets were one of the first NBA teams to issue a statement in the aftermath of the killing of Floyd. Barclays Center shortly after became a hotspot for peaceful protesting in New York, and Nets owner Joe Tsai issued a statement to The Daily News of his support for the demonstrations in the name of unity.
The Nets made both statements well before their crosstown rival Knicks issued one. The Knicks were the second-to-last team to do so — just before the Spurs, whose head coach, Gregg Popovich, had already been known to be more outspoken on social issues than almost any other NBA figure. Knicks and Rangers owner James Dolan issued a vague statement only after his initial internal attempts to defend his choice not to make one were leaked to the public.
Vaughn believes he’s on the right side of the bridge on this one.
“It’s been huge, to be associated with an organization that from Day One stepped up and was willing to have a conversation, tough conversation about what’s going on in our society,” he said, “as well (as) condemn the actions of our society but also continue the dialogue of improving where we are as a society.”
He’s also excited to restart the NBA season in Orlando.
“I am excited about it,” Vaughn said. “I think it’s a combination of March Madness, so it takes me back to my college days. There’s a little bit of a Summer League element, so your gonna have to be very flexible in your thought process…At the end of the day, though, we are getting back to competing, and so I am definitely looking forward to that.”