On May 25, a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, was killed by a Minneapolis Municipal police officer, Derek Chauvin, who choked him with his knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The video filmed by a passerby and later confirmed by the security camera recording of a nearby restaurant showing the man on the ground desperately asking the four policemen for help to let him breathe is chilling.
As Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote in his painful speech in the Los Angeles Times , the news of a heinous crime committed by the police against an African-American disturbs a white and angers a black. “Racism in America is like dust in the air”, Jabbar always wrote, “it seems invisible until you let the sun in”. And seeing those images, so concrete and so real, has opened yet another light on the systemic racism that has characterized the history of the United States since its foundation. At an already difficult time for the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent economic crisis, the murder of George Floyd was the proverbial fuse.
As happened in 1968 and 1992, when images of Rodney King’s beating sparked the Los Angeles riot (just to name the two most famous cases), the African American community took to the streets again to demand change. of the company . A necessary and no longer postponable change that has also deeply involved US sport.
The NBA’s reaction to George Floyd
In April 1992, when the violent protests broke out following the sentence that declared innocent the four policemen charged with the attack on black taxi driver Rodney King, the NBA playoffs were played in Los Angeles and both the Lakers and the Clippers took the field although the city was in total chaos. These were the years of George Bush Sr.’s presidency that came after the Reagan decade and during which Michael Jordan refused to give his support to Harvey Gantt, the Democratic candidate in North Carolina, uttering the famous phrase that still represents the greatest stain on his career (” Republicans buy sneakers too “, or ” Republicans buy sneakers too “).
The simple fact that Jordan also felt free this time to express his solidarity with the victims of racism and people of color in America makes it clear how many things have changed in the NBA over the past 30 years, but also how they are. remained the same in the rest of the United States.
Jordan is obviously also one of the 30 owners of the NBA, who individually made their voices heard through more or less sincere official announcements. In fact, not all have openly addressed their indignation against police brutality by taking refuge in standardized formulas and carefully avoiding naming the term racism, but speaking more generally of “things to change”.
Only two NBA franchises in the days immediately following George Floyd’s murder did not release a statement on the affair. The San Antonio Spurs, who counted on the visibility and charisma of Gregg Popovich, only to publish several videos yesterday with social content; and of course the New York Knicks, who always manage to be the worst despite not having played basketball for almost three months now, claiming they are ” not qualified to talk about it “.
On May 31, in a note sent to all NBA employees, Commissioner Adam Silver said he was deeply touched by the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. “Just as we are fighting a pandemic, which has hit communities and people of color the most, we have been warned that there are still wounds that this country does not want to heal. Racism, police violence and social injustices remain a part of the daily routine of American life and cannot be ignored ”.
Words echoed by those of the Coaches Association, which with a letter countersigned by all the head coaches and NBA assistants strongly condemn”The events of recent weeks – police violence, racial profiling and the use of racism -” defining them as “shameful, inhuman and intolerable. As a diverse group of leaders, we have a responsibility to stand up and speak for the voiceless – and for those who don’t feel safe doing so. ” It is no coincidence that those who have the task of training these young men into professional athletes are also the most sensitive to the difficulties they face in a country that discriminates against them in every aspect of society. The letter goes on to say “witnessing George Floyd’s murder in cold blood and in broad daylight has traumatized our nation, but the reality is that African Americans are targeted and persecuted on a daily basis. As NBA coaches,
Lloyd Pierce, the Atlanta Hawks’ African-American coach, posted a photo of him on his Instagram profile specifying how the hashtag #JusticeforFloyd could easily have been #JusticeforLloyd. Steve Kerr instead used Twitter to express his admiration for young people in the square without giving up a couple of jabs towards President Donald Trump.
Those who did not limit themselves to a few social jokes about Donald Trump’s work were Gregg Popovich, who in a no holds barred interview with The Nation called him a deranged idiot and a coward. Pop, however, also highlighted the lack during these protests of a leadership capable of directing anger and dissent towards real change.
Not just players, but leaders
A message that in a certain sense has been received by some NBA players, who have taken and accepted a leadership role in their communities, using their platforms to guide the demonstrations by taking to the streets in first person.
The first voice to rise amidst the protests was Stephen Jackson’s. Jackson played 14 years in the NBA, winning a 2003 title with the San Antonio Spurs and the following year was banned for 30 games after participating in the infamous Malice at the Palace. He grew up in Fort Arthur, Texas, never knowing his biological father and with his mother’s new partner, who went to jail when Jackson was 13. Three years later his older brother was killed in a fight, leaving him alone to take care of his family. He met George Floyd years ago in Houston and from that moment a strong friendship was born, tragically interrupted by Derek Chauvin’s knee.
His speech in the City Hall of Minneapolis while the echoes of the protests could already be heard in the city was one of the most touching and profound heard so far, both for his familiarity with the victim, and for the surgical precision of his words. “The first thing the police do when they realize they have made a mistake,” Jackson began, “is to try to cover it up by pulling out the victim’s past to justify their own violence.” “But when is a murder justified?” Jackson then asked the crowd around him. “Yet when it comes to a black man it is allowed. You can’t tell me that when that man had his knee on my brother’s neck, taking his life, with his hands in his pockets, he didn’t have the expression on his face of someone who knew he was protected ».
Listening to Jackson’s words were Jamie Foxx, Oscar winner for Ray , and two Minnesota Timberwolves players: Josh Okogie and Karl-Anthony Towns, who also experienced the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic on their own skin. On April 13, in fact, Jaqueline Cruz, Towns mother, was unable to overcome the pulmonary complications caused by Covid-19 and left at the age of 59.
New Jersey, the state where the Towns family lives, was one of the most devastated epicenters of the pandemic with nearly 12,000 deaths. Most of these were black men and women or People of Color , who suffered the severity of the health crisis much harder than whites. The death rate from COVID-19 for black people in America is two and a half times higher than that estimated for the white population. This disproportion describes the structural discrimination that people of color face every day, having less access to high-level healthcare, being employed unsupervised in so-called essential jobs and dealing with much lower housing standards.
It is a systemic racism that runs through the history of the United States from its foundation to the present day and that remains present in every aspect of everyday life, in the urban planning of large cities, in the methods of providing mortgages, in the entrance to education and world of work. Philadelphia 76ers winger Tobias Harris took to the streets of the City of Brotherly Love to protest, bringing his teammate Mike Scott with him on FaceTime. He later wrote a long piece for The Players’ Tribunein which he invokes the personal responsibility of the police, who in his opinion “should maintain a very high standard of conduct, but who instead always enjoy the benefit of the doubt in their actions. They act as if they are not accountable to anyone. ”
Harris then insists on the importance of education in forming a new generation of men and women of color aware of their own history and that of their country, able to implement the change that the Sixers player himself says he embraced when he had. access to the testimonies of great African-American activists.
Education was also crucial for Jaylen Brown, the Celtics player who drove 15 straight hours to attend the rally in his Atlanta. When he was a freshman at the University of California, even knowing that he would most likely stay for only one year, he included courses of study for Graduate Students in his curriculum in order to address the topics that really interested him. These include cultural studies on sport and education, those on African-American culture and on poverty and decolonization.
Brown is the perfect example of a successful young athlete who wants to use his platform to raise awareness among his peers, who may have had less luck than him, giving voice to their need for equality and justice. It is no coincidence then that last year he became the youngest vice president of the NBA Players Association, at just 22 years old.
A position that he shares with another athlete from Atlanta who fell by his side with a megaphone in his hand amid the protests of recent days: Malcom Brogdon. The Pacers point guard, nicknamed “The President” at university for his immaculate academic career and voice reminiscent of the then President Barack Obama, in his senior year in Virginia stayed in the rooms designed by Thomas Jefferson himself. .
His grandfather in the 1960s marched with Dr. King; Malcom with Lil Yachty.
Brogdon was still at the Milwaukee Bucks when Sterling Brown showed up silently and with signs in his face at a workout after he was stopped by local police the previous night for mis-parked his vehicle. Brown was handcuffed and tasered by at least six members of the Milwaukee police, as evidenced by images from the agents’ personal cameras.
“As an NBA player, the titular point guard of the Indiana Pacers, I think I’m a public figure,” Brogdon told Rachel Nichols’ ESPN program The Jump, “but when I leave the arena and go home, I’m back home again. a black man, ”stressing that even being a professional athlete doesn’t put you safe in America.
A reality explained with exemplary clarity by a tweet from Bradley Beal, which responds to all those who continue to mock the words of NBA players as privileged and spoiled.
An African-American athlete must go through a system that is meticulously designed to make him fail before he can sign his first professional contract. For this, with their history, they can give back what it means to be black in the United States today, guaranteeing a perspective that many of their fans do not have access to.
“It’s time to look in the mirror and ask yourself what we do to bring about change. It is not just being a role model, it is not just staying faithful to the traditions of activism (…), but I want to use this evening as a call to action for all professional sportsmen, to educate themselves, explore these issues, do not have fear to raise their voices, use their influence and reject any kind of violence ». These words from LeBron James closed in the summer of 2016 the opening speech of the ESPYs given together with Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade. At the start of the next NFL season, Colin Kaepernick would begin to kneel during the national anthem before his San Francisco 49ers’ games, beginning his martyrdom. which would quickly take him out of the league.
It is therefore no coincidence that LeBron James immediately after the murder of George Floyd used his social networks to share a powerful image for his parallelism. On the left Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as if it were the most normal thing in the world; on the right Kaepernick kneeling in front of the benches in his protest.
Kaepernick’s protest was immediately back in the air, especially when President Trump said he was an ally of any peaceful protester before ordering Washington DC police to shoot the crowd with rubber bullets to take a photo of themselves. Bible in hand in front of the church closest to the White House. Kaepernick has returned to talk with the statement of the New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who said that Kap’s gesture is an affront to the flag and the country, sparking anger among his colleagues in the NFL and other leagues. .
The legitimacy of the demonstrations and the ways in which they should be carried out soon became the excuses of those who have no intention of changing the stratified balance of power in America (and in the world). The burning barracks and the shattered shop windows are the disjunctives of every discourse that ends with an equivalence between human lives and Nike boxes.
In a chaotic and evolving situation, professional sport, and in particular the NBA, is providing a sensible platform for dialogue on a subject on which we can no longer afford to remain silent. A task that would be up to the government and the president if they weren’t locked up in a nuclear bunker tweeting racist slogans.
Three years ago I wrote about the relationship between Trump and US sport and since then it does not seem to have changed much, indeed, things seem even worse. Then I noticed how “the real problem is not that athletes talk about politics, the problem is that athletes talk about politics, race and integration with greater depth, knowledge of the facts and critical sense of the President of the United States”. Now, with major US companies lining up on the side of the protesters, at least in words, you can even replace athletes with a high-calorie brand of ice cream .
