Drafting Zion would be a game changer for the Suns
ATLANTA – Shut it down, Zion. You have nothing else to prove on the college level.
Truth be told, the 18-year-old manchild Zion Williamson didn’t need to play a single game at Duke to show he was an elite talent who should go No. 1 overall in the 2019 draft.
So, recover from the knee sprain. Get healthy. Prepare for the draft — and make Nike break the bank to sign you after its Paul George’s gave way in what was the biggest college game you’ll play.
We've seen all the mock drafts with the Suns (11-49) taking Williamson first overall.
We've heard fans calling for the Suns to “tank” for the extremely athletic 6foot-7, 285 power forward blessed with tremendous size, speed, leaping ability, agility, strength and explosiveness.
Pairing him with Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker and Co. sounds appetizing to Suns Nation, but a louder cry throughout the season has been for Phoenix to find a proven point guard.
Still, the Suns wind up with the top pick for a second straight season, they should draft Williamson — and maybe that’ll attract a free agent point guard. We'll explain the latter later.
The biggest win Phoenix has had this season has been at the city council, which approved a $150 million renovation plan for Talking Stick Resort Arena in a proposal that includes a new prac-
with family members of police brutality casualties including Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Terence Crutcher.
“I would encourage everybody to read it,” Crawford said. “It’s so informative. It’s something that’s timeless to be honest with you.”
Emerald Garner is the daughter of Eric Garner, who was killed by a New York City police officer in July 2014 while he was arrested for illegally selling cigarettes in his convenience store. Several witnesses of the incident reported that Garner repeatedly yelled “I can’t breathe” as he was choked to death.
“Phoenix is one of the teams when after Eric Garner was killed they wore the ‘I Can’t Breathe’ shirts,” Thomas said.
“That statement just kind of rang through America, of seeing an entire team speak out after something like that happened, for how powerful it was.”
Many NBA teams including the Suns donned “I Can’t Breathe” shirts to honor the life of Garner and raise awareness about police brutality in several pregame warmups during the 2014-15 season.
None of the teams were reprimanded or fined by the NBA. It was a sign of the NBA’s pivot from Commissioner David Stern to his successor, Adam Silver in 2014, in allowing players to voice their political views.
“It’s a special time athletes are speaking out on different causes and they’re using their voices and they’re not afraid to,” Thomas said. “The NBA is not a league that is trying to silence their voice.”
That wasn’t always the case. Long before Kaepernick and Reid, two of the NBA’s all-time best shooters, Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, were frozen out by the NBA for their activism in the 1990s.
“I played in the Stern era,” Thomas said. “Adam Silver is not against it, not moving backwards. It’s completely different.
“Remember that Mahmoud AbdulRauf and Craig Hodges happened during the Stern era.”
During the 1995-96 season, AbdulRauf, then with the Denver Nuggets, refused to stand during the pre-game playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” He claimed the American flag as a symbol of oppression and tyranny, and standing for it would deviate from his Muslim faith.
On March 12, 1996, the NBA suspended him for one game, citing a rule that players are required to line up in a “dignified posture” for the anthem.
Two days after his suspension, Abdul-Rauf compromised with the NBA that he would stand during the anthem, but would close his eyes, look downward, and recite an Islamic prayer for people of all races and ethnic backgrounds suffering across the world.
That same year, Hodges filed a $40 million dollar lawsuit against the league to claim that he was being blackballed by the NBA.
According the New York Times, Hodges’ lawsuit stated that his association with outspoken Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and criticism of “African-American professional athletes who failed to use their considerable wealth and influence to assist the poor and disenfranchised” made him a pariah by the league.
The lawsuit came four years after Hodges went to the White House with the 1991-92 NBA champion Chicago Bulls and gave a hand-written letter addressed to then-President George H. W. Bush.
The letter explained his discontent for the Bush administration’s neglect of the poor and minorities.
As the league’s three-time defending 3-point shooting champion, Hodges was waived the Bulls before the 1992-93 season, and was never offered another NBA team tryout.
“I interviewed Adam Silver and asked him if he would punish anybody speaking out,” Thomas said. “He said no and that he values athletes using their voices and values athletes using their platforms, and talked about the history of athletes using their platforms like Bill Russell, Kareem (AbdulJabbar), Oscar Robertson.”
“There was people going through stuff 100 times worse back in the day even though we’re still fighting our own fight now,” Crawford said about African-American athletes who were activists decades years ago.
“Without those guys to draw from to give courage and inspiration that you can make a difference, especially to come together ... and looking at things from a different perspective and trying to get everybody to view from that viewpoint.”
Crawford is all-too familiar with racism in the NBA and using his platform to make statements against it.
In April 2014, an audio clip of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling revealed his disdain for his then-girlfriend’s association with African-Americans, including Magic Johnson. Sterling warned her not invite them to the Clippers’ home games.
The reported private conversation caused a media firestorm, and thenPresident Barack Obama, Magic Johnson and Clippers head coach Doc Rivers decried Sterling’s incendiary commentary.
“The way we saw it, we weren’t playing for Donald Sterling. It was about the brotherhood,” Crawford said in the book. “Doc was very open and very supportive. He just kept emphasizing that whatever we do, we are going to do this as a unit... He told us that he was just as affected by this just as we were affected by this.”
The Clippers team, who Crawford was a member of at the time, threatened a boycott of Game 4 in their first round playoff matchup against the Golden State Warriors on April 27, 2014.
Crawford said the team’s boycott threat received much vitriol from NBA fans.
“‘You guys didn’t stand for anything, you should have done it like this; the athletes of the sixties would’ve done this or that; this is your moment,’” Crawford said of the backlash to their proposed boycott.
“Sometimes you will be criticized either way.”
The Warriors were willing to take a stand with the Clippers in the proposed boycott, but ultimately decided to play the game.
Silver spearheaded the push to force former Clippers owner Donald Sterling to sell the franchise thereafter.
Thomas said that this generation of NBA players have the power of social media that transcends sports to heavily influence their audiences.
“It’s like imagine if Muhammad Ali had a Twitter account. That’s where LeBron James is right now. He can say whatever he wants to and millions of people will hear it.”