Heat releases Black Lives Matter Collection of shirts
As Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra sat down for his postpractice media session Thursday, he stuck out his chest to emphasize the message on his shirt.
“Silence is Compliance,” it read.
Spoelstra’s shirt is part of the new Black Lives Matter Collection of Court Culture Apparel that the Heat released Thursday, with all of the profits from the sales of the collection going to three organizations — Black Girls CODE, Health in the Hood and Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
“We want to be, as an organization, part of the solution,” Spoelstra said during a video conference call Thursday. “We have five different shirts. This is the one I chose for today because this is the one that really resonates with me.
It’s not enough just to know where your heart is or even your friends to know where your heart is. Right now, it’s important to really weigh in on this discussion. Often times, it’s uncomfortable and it has been uncomfortable for me at times.
But when you really think about silence is compliance, I’m not going to do that.”
Other shirts in the Heat’s Black Lives Matter Collection feature messages like “Enough with the Hate,” “Enough is Enough,” and “Love Black People the way you Love Black Culture.”
“I love it,” Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. said of the shirts. “It’s just another way some of us that aren’t very vocal, that aren’t very comfortable going out and speaking to the media or the public, or period, just need to have the shirt on that says something like this. It sends a message to everyone.”
With NBA players and coaches uniting in the battle against systemic racism, social justice messages will be all over the court and arena when the season resumes Thursday at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. “Black Lives Matter” is printed onto the courts, teams are planning protests during the playing of the national anthem and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday that the league is allowing the home teams at Disney to submit content and graphics incorporating social justice messages to be displayed on the in-game venue video boards.
Jones said Heat players are still discussing what they will do during the playing of the national anthem before Saturday’s first seeding game against the Denver Nuggets.
“This is bigger than basketball,” Spoelstra said. “We just had another discussion about it as a team. We don’t want this conversation to go away. This is an opportunity to create and be a part of lasting change. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done and all of us need to continue to be uncomfortable to get involved and make change.”
There was a lot of thought from the Heat put into choosing the three organizations that will benefit from the sale of the Black Lives Matter Collection.
Black Girls CODE is dedicated to leveling the playing field for girls of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Designed for girls and young women between the ages of 7 to 17, the aim is to inspire youth to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities and builders of their own futures.
Health in the Hood’s mission is to connect low-income families to healthy, free local food by transforming vacant land into vegetable gardens and teaching wellness groups.
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition is a grassroots membership organization run by formerly convicted persons who are dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions.
“We didn’t want to jump into something or just write a check or get involved in a bunch of different places where our impact would be diluted,” Spoelstra said. “We want to make the most impact. We know we can’t be everywhere at the same time. But if we’re very specific and we are able to collaborate with organizations that share values, we think we can do some special things with this.”