SPORTS WORLD REACTS:
Sports figures, who have been at the forefront of racial and social justice movements that gripped the country for the better part of the last year after the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks, reacted with emotions ranging from relief to celebration after a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in Floyd’s murder.
Floyd’s death, captured on video last May, showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. It sparked nationwide protests and conversations about police brutality.
“Justice and Accountability! Things I never thought I would see,” Timberwolves center Karl Anthony Towns wrote on Twitter after Tuesday’s verdict. “There’s much more work to do, but this is an amazing start working toward the reform this country NEEDS!”
LeBron James tweeted “ACCOUNTABILITY” in all caps.
“God is good all the time,” Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell wrote.
“Progress..” wrote DeMarcus Cousins, a former Rockets center now with the Clippers.
Hawks star Trae Young wrote that the verdict was “long overdue.”
He followed it up with a second tweet that read, “WAY MORE WORK TO DO.”
Grizzlies star Ja Morant simply tweeted, “justice.”
NBA players, along with athletes from the WNBA and NWSL, have continued to be outspoken on racial equality and criminal justice reform.
At the NBA bubble in Florida, the league painted courts with “Black Lives Matter” and established a social justice coalition, of which Rockets Avery Bradley and Sterling Brown are members. Some players, including eight Rockets, chose to wear jerseys emblazoned with social justice messages for the restart of the 2020 season.
This season, Brown was among NBA players who criticized the decision not to charge the Wisconsin police officer who shot and wounded Jacob Blake. In January, some players chose to symbolically protest the riot at the U.S. capitol by taking a knee on the court before games.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts released a joint statement Tuesday applauding the guilty verdict in Chauvin’s case.
“George Floyd’s murder was a flash point for how we look at race and justice in our country, and we are pleased that justice appears to have been served,” the statement read. “But we also recognize that there is much work to be done, and the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association, together with our newly formed Social Justice Coalition, will redouble our efforts to advocate for meaningful change in the areas of criminal justice and policing.”
From baseball, Astros manager Dusty Baker said, “It’s never a time to celebrate when someone is killed. My prayers go to the Floyd family. Maybe this will help us heal and we’ll cease with the violence. I’m just hoping this sends us in a positive direction.”