‘It breaks our heart’

Players speak up collectively in video on systemic racism

In advance of a virtual town hall with fans on Friday’s Juneteenth to discuss systemic racism, the Miami Heat released a powerful five-minute video offering pointed perspectives from the team’s players.

A sampling of the comments, in the video that featured quick cuts between the interviews:

Chris Silva: “It’s really sad, what’s going on.”

Kendrick Nunn: “With all the police brutality and racism going on in the world today, I’m feeling hurt, tired, fed up.”

Derrick Jones Jr.: “It’s got us all down. We just don’t know how to feel right now.”

Goran Dragic: “It really hurts to see what is going on.”

Kelly Olynyk: “I feel disgusted, frustrated about how a group of human beings are being treated in this world right now.”

Meyers Leonard: “What’s going on right now is incredibly, incredibly wrong.”

Jimmy Butler: “I hear and talk a lot about fear, in the sense that you might not make it home, your son might not make it home, your daughter might not make it home.”

Jones: “To see all the things going on right now, it just breaks our heart.”

Leonard: “It’s made me feel unease. It has made me wonder: Should I speak up? What do I say? How do I say it?”

Tyler Herro: “It’s really touching home with me right now, obviously with everything that’s going. I’m happy to see everybody speaking up.”

Udonis Haslem: “I think my goal, right now, in this situation, is to continue to educate people on racism, educate people on injustice, educate people on voting.”

Andre Iguodala: “There needs to be a lot of education given out to those who have been in a position of power, historically, in this country.”

KZ Okpala: “The people closest to you can be racist and,

I think, it’s important that you call them out on it.”

Iguodala: “I do feel it’s the responsibility for those people to educate themselves.”

Gabe Vincent: “I feel like for the first time, we’ve been able to speak openly and emotionally about what’s going on, as well as find ways to move forward.”

Nunn: “The type of change I want to see is unity. I want Blacks to be respected and treated equally. I want police brutality and racism to stop.”

Duncan Robinson: “I can commit to using my platform as well as contributing my time and money toward initiatives that view these problems as a priority.”

Leonard: “If you have a platform, it is incredibly, incredibly important to use it to positively impact other peoples’ lives.”

Bam Adebayo: “I can be a voice for people who don’t have one, the people who are trying to say something, but nobody is listening. I think I can be a voice for those people.”

Vincent: “We, as a black community, need to find ways to strengthen our voice.”

Nunn: “A couple of things that I can do to help out with this issue is always encourage positive behavior and equality. Most importantly, vote, empower our black youth and communities.”

Robinson: “I can just engage in these uncomfortable conversations and no longer run away from them.”

Leonard: “We need to become more educated, self-included.”

Dragic: “Teach ourselves and the kids that it doesn’t matter what kind of color skin you are.”

Adebayo: “I tell people that Matter.”

Olynyk: “For people living in fear? It just isn’t right.”

Dragic: “We need to change the whole system.”

Butler: “It should not be like that. And it’s time to change. We will make a change. We will stand together.”

Haslem: “We’ll be heard and take this opportunity while we have this platform as a people.” will always Black Lives