Nash: Meaningful change needed after ‘tragedy’
About 10 miles from the alleged accidental police shooting of a black man, Nets coach Steve Nash spoke with despair in his voice.
“More senseless tragedy,” Nash said Tuesday, before the Nets’ 127-97 win over the Timberwolves. “Heartbreaking for everyone, I think, I hope, to be in a civilization that behaves this way. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be African-American, to be an African-American parent. It’s unacceptable, and it’s devastating to put yourself in their shoes. And it’s devastating just to be a part of it.”
Daunte Wright, 20, was shot Sunday by Brooklyn Center, Minn., police officer Kim Potter after he was pulled over for driving with expired license plates.
A “gross misdemeanor warrant” for Wright’s arrest was discovered and a struggle ensued as Wright tried to reenter his car, according to police. Surveillance footage showed Potter pulling out her gun and fatally shooting Wright as he drove away. Police later said Potter had intended to use her Taser on Wright, but instead used her gun in “an accidental discharge.”
The Nets-Timberwolves game was postponed Monday night and rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon on about six hours of notice. Both teams warmed up and stood for the national anthem in black T-shirts that read “With liberty and justice FOR ALL” in white block letters. A moment of silence was held, during which a picture of Wright with his young child was shown on the Target Center video board.
“The sad reality is that we just keep moving forward,” Nash said. “All of us are programmed to keep moving forward. And it keeps happening. That’s worrisome in a sense. We all want to play. We all want to do our job. We all love what we do. But it is worrisome that life just keeps moving forward but nothing really changes. Just a lot of conflict, I think, internally for everybody.”
Yankees star Aaron Hicks — who previously played for the Twins — sat out Monday’s game because he wasn’t in the right emotional space to play.
About 75 percent of NBA players are black, according to studies.
“If we’re not playing for the right reasons, that’s 100 percent great,” Nash said. “But what does it change if we do play today or don’t play today? Meaningful change needs to come at some point, and we could debate whether or not playing today would bring about meaningful change. I think meaningful change is much, much deeper than a basketball game, so what can we do to support meaningful change? Those are conversations that I don’t think pivot on one game.”
Nash said he would be “all for not playing” if there was a “step-by-step, sort-of procedural reasoning” behind the cancellation.
“It’s a much bigger issue than a basketball game, and that’s the tricky part of this,” Nash said. “Before you know it, we’ll be in Philly [to play Wednesday], then we’ll be back home, and then we’ll be in the next city — and this poor kid lost his life. A baby lost a father. It’s sickening.”
Wright’s death occurred as the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on the neck of George Floyd for more than nine minutes during an arrest last May, continued.
“What’s new?” Nash asked rhetorically. “The players, how many times in their careers have they faced a situation like this? This just happens to be we’re in Minnesota when another event happens on top of what happened last year. It’s a terrible, terrible situation.”