San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Social justice is at the center of NBA’s reboot.
Social justice is at the center of NBA reboot
Rudy Gay saw the footage, just like everyone else. He felt the same sick outrage.
He watched as Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on a handcuffed black man’s neck for more than eight minutes.
He watched George Floyd die, on camera, as two other white officers looked on.
It was at that moment, on May 25, that Gay realized what was to come. There could be no proposed NBA restart unless social justice issues were addressed.
“This is what we’re going to be about,” the Spurs forward said. “George Floyd’s
death was the tipping point. You kill a man on tape — at that point what else is there to talk about?”
For NBA players, Floyd’s murder — in broad daylight and full camera view — and the nationwide protests that followed became the overriding issue of the league’s coronavirus-sparked hiatus.
Some, such as Brooklyn’s
Kyrie Irving and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Avery Bradley, suggested players should not participate in the NBA’s July 30 resumption to keep the spotlight on the protests.
Irving and Bradley will not play for their teams in Orlando. Irving is out with an injury, and Bradley opted out for what the Lakers called family obligations.
Speaking for the rest of the players on the 22 teams playing in Central Florida this month, National Basketball Players Association president Chris Paul has a message for fans awaiting the restart.
“It’s never a shut up and dribble situation,” the Oklahoma City point guard said. “You’re going to continue to hear us.”
The NBA at-large is on board with the notion of keeping social justice at the forefront of whatever the league attempts in Orlando.
“It’s a seminal moment in the sense that we have an opportunity to do something transformative if we have the courage,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in a video conference with reporters from Orlando on Saturday. “The league, the players, the coaches, the staff — everybody is very committed to keeping it up front in everybody’s consciousness. Even though everybody is excited to go play, this is a great opportunity to make sure we maintain the momentum.”
What that looks like in practice might vary from player to player.
Spurs guard Patty Mills — who has pledged to donate the nearly $1.02 million he will earn for playing in the Orlando to equal rights groups in his native Australia — said the league promoting social justice was a “must-have” component of the restart as far as players are concerned.
“There is a platform now,” Mills said. “And that’s not to say this hasn’t been done before, because the social justice issues have always been there. But I don’t think there has been a platform like this to have.”
The NBA — which is nearly 75 percent Black — has done its best to make the Orlando bubble not only a safe space to discuss social justice issues, but a bold one.
The league is planning to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the court at each of the three arenas on the ESPN “Wide World of
Sports” campus.
Players also will be allowed to replace their names on the back of their jerseys with social justice messaging. So far, according to an ESPN report, “EQUALITY” has been the most popular selection.
Spurs forward DeMar DeRozan, a four-time All-Star, participated in protests in his native Los Angeles during the NBA shutdown.
He said he has mixed feelings about returning to play at a time when he still could be in the streets working for change.
“I feel any player would tell you the same,” DeRozan said. “It’s such an unconventional time in every single type of way. It’s going to be a challenge for a lot of players.”
Spurs guard Derrick White says he is considering wearing some sort of tribute on his shoes to Elijah McClain.
McClain was a 23-year-old Black man killed during an encounter with police last year in Aurora, Colo., outside of Denver.
As Colorado native himself, White was especially affected by McClain’s death.
“We’ve got to make people aware, continue to educate others,” White said. “Right now, there’s been no other distractions per se, because everyone is quarantining. It’s allowed people to educate themselves on what’s really going on in the world and learn about the social justice that is going on. … I feel like the NBA does a great job of using its platform to inspire change. I can see how we can inspire change by playing, too.”
Michele Roberts, the executive director of the players union, said she expects players will have broad leeway with which to advance their social justice message in Orlando.
Players are determined not to lose momentum for the cause simply by returning to work.
“The conversation that is happening between our players has been exactly that: What do we do? How do we do it?” Roberts said. “I can’t imagine anything healthier than that. I would have been ashamed had there not been a conversation. If the players had been talking about getting back to play and nothing else, frankly as an African-American woman, I would have been disappointed.”
For players such as Gay, that means no shutting up while dribbling.
The moment George Floyd’s final breath left his body while the world watched, the NBA’s restart stopped being about basketball to those most important to making it happen.
“The thing with this platform is to make this not be a distraction for what’s going on, to use this platform to magnify the situation in a good way, and put people in perspective,” Gay said. “As a Black man, I feel like this is my platform. This is the only way I know how to do it.”