Five Warriors, including Steph Curry, join in Oakland protest.
Dressed head-to-toe in black, his right fist thrust firmly in the air, Steph Curry took a knee alongside several hundred protesters Wednesday in Oakland.
Along with four other Warriors, Curry joined a 3.4-mile march around Oakland’s Lake Merritt to protest the death of George Floyd last week at the hands of Minneapolis police. The march was organized by Curry’s teammate Juan Toscano-Anderson, a Castro Valley native of AfricanAmerican and Mexican descent.
“My name is Juan Toscano-Anderson, and I play for the Warriors,” Curry’s teammate said through a megaphone as the two-time
NBA MVP looked on. “But, before the Warriors, I’m a black man. Half black. Half Mexican.”
In addition to Curry and Toscano-Anderson, Klay Thompson, Damian Lee and Kevon Looney marched alongside protesters wearing black, carrying signs and chanting “NO RACIST POLICE. NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.”
After four days of protests in Oakland, some violent, Toscano-Anderson made an announcement via Twitter late Tuesday night. “JOIN US TOMORROW. PEACEFULLY!” he wrote above a flyer that provided details of the event.
The march began with eight minutes of silence — protesters laying chestdown on the lawn at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater
— representing the amount of time Floyd lay on the street while police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck, killing him.
The silence was interrupted by Floyd’s last words. Cries of “I CAN’T BREATHE,” “MAMA” and “MY NECK” echoed across the lake.
Curry, Lee and ToscanoAnderson then began marching with protesters, first in front of the Alameda County courthouse and onto Lake Merritt Boulevard. Midway through the march, Thompson and Looney joined Curry and Lee as Toscano-Anderson led.
Eventually, the march rounded onto Lakeside
Drive. In happier times, this is where the Warriors’ championship parades have ended.
“I’ve got people in the locker room who are not only going to stand up for what I stand up for, but who are also going to stand up with me,” Toscano-Anderson said. “It’s a different feeling. I’d run through a wall for those guys now.”
As protests unfolded across the country in the days after Floyd’s death, Toscano-Anderson and a group of childhood friends felt they needed to do something for their community. After exchanging texts and phone calls, the group made the decision to arrange the peaceful protest late Tuesday night. By 10:15 p.m., they posted their plans to social media. They had no idea how many people
would turn out on such short notice.
As protesters filed into the amphitheater, Curry and his wife Ayesha quietly made an entrance and took a seat. They were not approached for autographs or selfies. This wasn’t a day for anything like that.
“People know what they mean to the Warriors community,” Toscano-Anderson said of the Currys. “But, unless you’re from Oakland, you don’t really understand what Steph means to the Oakland community.”
While helping organize the protest, Toscano-Anderson was nervous about the blowback he might receive. After all, he only made his NBA debut this past season after toiling in Mexico’s professional league and the G League, and figures to be deep on
Golden State’s bench next season, if he makes the roster at all.
But he received the support of the Warriors organization, which was only buoyed by Curry’s appearance. “If I got Steph Curry out here with me, nobody trippin,” Toscano-Anderson said.
Confidently, ToscanoAnderson helped lead the march, breaking at intersections to talk to the group of protesters with his megaphone. At one corner, Curry, wearing a black face mask and dark sunglasses under a black bucket hat, chanted “DON’T SHOOT” and put both hands in the air before kneeling for another moment of silence.
As the country deals with the fallout of Floyd’s death, the sports world has grappled with how to make
a statement while preserving its own business interests, and the NBA is finalizing plans to resume its season.
Last week, the Warriors issued a statement saying “We condemn, in no uncertain terms, racism and violence perpetrated against members of the Black community, and we call on all people to channel their justifiable anger into creating a more just and equitable society.”
Prepared statements can only do so much. The NBA’s players, a majority of whom are black, are in a unique position to help bring awareness to these issues.
“It’s not a million people, it’s not 100,000 people, it’s not 10,000 people, but it’s a crowd,” Toscano-Anderson said. “It’s just a step in the right direction.”