Team goal: Drive voters to take part
Warriors collaborate with ‘Rock The Vote’ nonprofit
OAKLAND >> The attire explained the cause with one simple phrase.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr sat on the podium wearing a T-Shirt with an emblazoned message: “Vote for Our Lives.” Warriors star Stephen Curry later sat on a podium that also had a message on the front of his sweatshirts and its sleeves: “I am a Voter.” Their attire before and after the Warriors’ win over Minnesota on Friday symbolized their efforts in galvanizing voters to the booth for Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“We have a platform, so we should drive people to register and get to the polls,” Curry said. “So we’re all doing our part.”
The Warriors have tried to do UP NEXT
Grizzlies at Warriors, Monday, 7:30 p.m., NBCBA
their part by collaborating with “Rock The Vote,” a nonprofit organization aimed to increase voter turnout and voter registration by partnering with various public figures.
Elsa Collins, the wife of Warriors assistant coach Jarron Collins and member of the “Rock the Vote” athlete advisory council, sought the Warriors’ interest given the team’s outspokenness on President Donald Trump as well as on social justice issues. So during training camp, “Rock the Vote” officials and Kerr outlined the importance to the organization about voting.
“If you can help create momentum that comes with mass voting, that’s how you create change,” Kerr said. “It’s not that your one vote is necessarily going to swing an election, but it’s the concept of voting and getting the people that you know to vote. Then all of a sudden, the numbers add up to where you can make a difference.”
How much of a difference will that make?
“Rock the Vote” officials said they registered seven Warriors players, two assistant coaches and other team officials. Though data was not readily available, “Rock the Vote” officials believe the Warriors’ interest have prompted their fans to register. The team released a PSA during its season opener that encouraged voter turnout.
The reason? Warriors star Kevin Durant, who registered after declining to vote since the 2008 election, summed up the thoughts of many on the team.
“Trump is in office,” Durant said. “Just the tone around the presidency
and around that administration, you can tell the majority of Americans don’t really side with Donald Trump. Just his policies, the way he is with his temperament and just everything he’s about is so divisive. Everything he’s doing is contrived. He’s doing it for the cameras, doing it for the fame and just to get a rise out of people. That’s cool if you want to be an entertainer on TV or a comedian. But to do that as a president? That’s the biggest leadership position in the world. We need somebody who put policies in place that give hope to kids coming up in communities that don’t feel like they have a voice.”
The Warriors are trying to encourage others to share their voice. Yet, Collins and Kerr have stressed the initiative has nothing to do with promoting political candidates. Instead, they have argued improved civic turnout could improve political discourse.
“Steve does a pretty good job of presenting what the landscape looks like,” Collins said. “That’s key because when you present what the landscape looks like, you start to recognize the entry points to the landscape all start with your participation. A lot of times your participation and your voice is your vote.”
The Warriors have not shied away from sharing their voice.
They have criticized Trump’s divisive rhetoric, so much that their outspokenness prompted Trump to rescind a White House invitation to celebrate the team’s 2017 NBA championship. Durant and Curry are participants in the newly released “Shut Up and Dribble” documentary. Curry has raised funds for the United Nation’s “Nothing but Nets” campaign that provides mosquito nets to protect families in across African from Malaria. He also has funded college scholarships for military families
through ThanksUSA. Meanwhile, Durant won the NBA Cares Community Assist award by donating for various charitable contributions in the Bay Area, his former college (University of Texas) and hometown (Prince George’s County in Maryland).
As for Kerr, he participated in a town-hall style meeting with Rep. Ro Khanna and high school students at Newark Memorial in March about mass shootings. Kerr, whose late father was assassinated in Beirut in 1984, has argued for stronger gun control following mass shootings in Las Vegas, at both a high school and church in Texas, at a high school in Parkland, Fla. and at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
“I’ve never talked about ‘go vote for so and so.’ The only thing I’ve said is I’m going to go vote for every candidate who is willing to stand up to the NRA,” Kerr said. “Our country is not honoring the victims by having a moment of silence. The only way to honor them is to do something. We pretend like we’re honoring them. Then more than a year after Vegas, Bump Stocks have not been federally banned. So our country and government in particular is not doing a damn thing to honor the victims. We’re more interested in the commerce that comes through the gun industry than we are in saving lives.”
Perhaps that might change following the mid-term elections. Andrew Feldman, a spokesman for “Rock the Vote” said that over 800,000 registered to vote, an increase from the 770,000 that registered for the 2016 election. Even when accounting for voter apathy and voter suppression, the Warriors sounded hopeful their latest efforts will mitigate such issues.
“We’re going to see a big turnout,” Kerr said. “It feels like there is a groundswell.” Pacers guard Victor Oladipo, right, passes the ball while defended by Boston’s Jaylen Brown. Oladipo had 24 points and 12 rebounds and hit the decisive 3-pointer.