We’re leaders in the NBA, social justice has place in our work
Hate is rising. A passing glance at headlines in recent years shows a litany of harrowing incidents of antisemitism.
And in November, the FBI released data showing that this is part of a broader pattern that should alarm us all. In 2021, state law enforcement agencies reported 7,759 hate crimes, representing a 12-year spike at the time.
Sadly, that trend has worsened with 11,634 incidents reported in 2022. Alongside antisemitism, hate speech, harassment and violence against Black, Asian, Muslim, Arab, LGBTQ+ and other communities have infiltrated our community spaces, our public dialogue and our politics at an unprecedented rate.
We all bear responsibility for combating hate, and we can make a difference.
As members of the NBA family, we know sporting events are one of the last remaining places where people come together to connect, to be inspired and to feel a sense of belonging. In sports, we lift people up through camaraderie and competition.
NBA brings broad range together
In the NBA, we are particularly proud to have fans who span a wide range of demographics in the United States. And, globally, we bring people together in more than 200 countries and territories where our games are distributed. People of all backgrounds, ethnicities and faiths are bonded together by love for our game, loyalty to their teams and admiration for their favorite athletes who hail from more than 40 different countries.
That is why we serve on the board of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition: to use the power of basketball to bring people together and lift up common-sense policy solutions to justice issues in our communities and beyond.
When it comes to addressing hate in 2024, it is both sobering and heartening to remember that we’ve fought this fight as a country before. We can and must learn from other painful chapters of American history: the displacement and persecution of Native Americans from the 1600s; the scourge of chattel slavery; Japanese-American internment during World War II; Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement; LGBTQ discrimination and the grassroots movement growing in the ’70s; and Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.
That history should never be far from our minds, and we must remain united in our resolve to tear down the walls that hate erects.
Our work at the coalition centers on advocacy for justice policies, so we have been pleased to see a litany of legislative and public policy efforts underway to curb the rising trend. There have been a range of new, state-level interventions focused on preventing hate across the country.
At the federal level, Congress passed an anti-hate crime bill in 2021. And, in 2022, all 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country launched the United Against Hate Initiative, convening local forums to connect community groups to federal, state and local law enforcement to increase community understanding and reporting of hate crimes.
Policymakers are critical leaders in this work, and these types of measures are meaningful in addressing hate crimes, ensuring accountability for perpetrators and supporting victims in their recovery. But, if we are to truly win the fight against hate, the work has to begin long before the point of a crime or an overt act.
Hate must be confronted directly
Across the NBA, we will continue to do our part. And each of us has a role to play in achieving real progress.
Every time we are confronted by rising hate, we must face it head on. We must name it. We must remember our history, be clear about our values and stand up for our friends, neighbors and families. We must recommit to the difficult work of creating a truly pluralistic society where we find commonality, not despite our unique origins and heritages but because of them.
Now is not the time for us to give in to apathy and despair but rise to meet the demands. We can be the nation that takes pride in weaving together the disparate threads of many cultures to create a single, vibrant tapestry of American community − one in which nobody is excluded and all are welcome to join.
Jrue Holiday, Micky Arison and J.B. Bickerstaff are board members of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition. Holiday plays professional basketball for the Boston Celtics and is cofounder of the Jrue & Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund; Arison is managing general partner of the Miami Heat and chairman of the Carnival Corp. & plc; Bickerstaff is head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.