Beyond the court, players are heard
The Warriors played a basketball game Monday night. They hosted the Memphis Grizzlies, struggled through a tight first half, blew open the game in the third and won 117-101. The Warriors are 10-1, and 6-0 at home.
But the Warriors can multitask. So on Monday — election day eve — they also participated in some civic discourse and mused on our most basic democratic right.
After the team’s shootaround Monday morning, Kevin Durant — between answers about DeMarcus Cousins and field-goal percentage — waxed poetic about the beauty of voting.
“It’s good to see so many people excited about the opportunity to change the course of where our country is going through the vote,” Durant
said. “A lot of young people are really involved. It’s good to see us united.”
That’s not a word many are using about our country right now. But Durant thinks Tuesday’s elections are a rallying point. He votes by mail but thought it would be “cool” to hang out at a polling place with people and feel the energy. The first time he ever voted was for President Barack Obama.
“You feel like you did something to better the world,” Durant said. “It’s a small thing ... but you feel like you’re a part of something.”
Durant’s not alone. His teammates have been using their social-media platforms to encourage voting. So has his head coach.
It’s all quite a bit different than it was back in the 1990s, when Steve Kerr was playing. For many years, he was playing on the most high-profile team in sports (the Chicago Bulls) alongside the most famous athlete in the world (Michael Jordan), but there wasn’t a lot of political discussion.
“It’s very different from when I was a player,” Kerr said. “I feel like it just wasn’t something that was talked about that much in professional sports among players and coaches. Some of that may have to do with the fact that we lived in a more stable time; I think we all had more faith in our government and what was happening and our institutions. Maybe when you’re more comfortable, you’re less less likely to be vocal and outspoken.
“I think everyone’s a little uncomfortable now.”
These days, some critics rail that athletes should “stick to sports” or “shut up and dribble.” But, back in Kerr’s playing era, it could be frustrating to see so many smart athletes using their cultural megaphones to do nothing more than sell shoes and sports drinks. Few athletes used their ability to reach people to speak to anything larger than capitalism and commercialism.
Depending on when you came of age, that apathy actually seemed like an aberration. The silence and satisfaction was the anomaly, a departure from a rich American sports tradition, the one of Jackie Robinson, Kareem AbdulJabbar, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. But as Kerr inferred, comfortable times allow people to sit back and count their millions.
But comfort level isn’t the only thing that has changed. Social media has given athletes a way to directly speak to their fans about anything, including politics. On Monday, Stephen Curry tweeted out support of Oakland’s Measure AA — a parcel tax to fund education — to his almost 13 million Twitter followers.
“We’re now in an era of social media, where everyone has a platform, everyone has a voice, and if you’re one of those guys in our locker room, you have a huge platform,” Kerr said. “And they recognize that they have a lot of power to create some good and some positive change. I’m really proud of them for trying to urge people to vote. I’m trying to do the same thing. “Hopefully, it helps.” Urging people to vote is innocuous at worst, responsible at best. Still, some are offended when athletes or other celebrities ask people to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
However, it seems far more proactive than the stance of Colin Kaepernick, who runs a campaign called “Know Your Rights” for young people, but apparently doesn’t see the irony in letting it be known he doesn’t take part in the most basic right a citizen has in a democracy: the right to vote.
Other athletes are embracing action. A few days ago, Curry arrived at Oracle wearing a hoodie with the words “I am a voter” on the sleeve.
On Monday, he came to work wearing a black T-shirt with the words “The young people will win.” That is the catchphrase from the March for Our Lives organization that was formed by the Parkland, Fla., students after the massacre at their high school in February.
“Trying to continue to raise awareness any way I can,” Curry said. “I think the saying kind of speaks for itself in terms of what tomorrow means all across our country.”
The Warriors don’t play a game Tuesday. But they’ll be involved.