On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Dallas Mavericks 154-111, taking a 3-2 lead in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
The game was positioned in the NBA “bubble” at Disney World in Orlando. A global autonomous for those inside, the bubble allowed the NBA to end the season while ensuring the physical condition and protection of players, coaches and officers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite physical isolation, players and coaches live in a social vacuum. They continue to use their voices and social media accounts as social justice platforms. After the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, many athletes joined the Black Lives Matter protests, calling for an end to systemic racism and police brutality opposed to blacks.
These protests continue with a pandemic that disproportionately affected black and Latino communities and exposed racial inequalities in all facets of life, from physical care to housing and the environment.
eval (ez_write_tag ([468,60], ‘stanforddaily_com-medrectangle-3’, ‘ezslot_7’, 174, ‘0’, ‘0’); This racial injustice facing our country goes beyond sport. For too long, enthusiasts have unfairly silenced athletes about outdoor problems in the sports world.
“Being a celebrity, being an NBA player, doesn’t exclude me from any verbal exchange,” Jaylen Brown said on his Instagram Live in a protest in May. “First of all, I’m a black man.”
Unable to attend bubble protests, players were confident that others would continue the verbal exchange of racial injustice in America. On opening night, “Black Lives Matter” painted on each and every field, and almost every NBA player knelt to hear the national anthem. WNBA has committed its season to Breonna Taylor.
eval (ez_write_tag ([728,90], ‘stanforddaily_com-medrectangle-4’, ‘ezslot_2’, 175, ‘0’, ‘0’); on 23 August, two days before the Clippers-Mavs match, Jacob Blake fired seven times in the back through the police in Kenosha, WI.
At a news convention with Clippers head coach Doc Rivers after his team’s victory, and after asking him about Paul George’s 35 or Kawhi Leonard’s 32 problems, reporters asked him what his idea of the latest police shooting was.
Rivers, visibly moved, said: “It’s unbelievable, we still love this country and this country doesn’t love us.” Eval (ez_write_tag ([300,250], ‘stanforddaily_com-box-4’, ‘ezslot_3′, 185, ” 0′,’ 0′);
The next day, from the list of scheduled sporting events, players from all NBA and WNBA teams, as well as players from various MLB and MLS teams, boycotted their games to protest against racism against blacks and police brutality behind Blake. Shot.
The Milwaukee Bucks players, who are just 40 miles from Kenosha, were the first to boycott, remaining in their locker room long after the scheduled time for their fifth game against the Orlando Magic. In one hour, the other two NBA games scheduled for later in the day were canceled due to boycotts.
“When we take the short to set up Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we have to play at the highest level, give maximum effort and hold the others accountable,” the Bucks players said in a statement. “We stick to that standard, and right now we’re asking lawmakers and law enforcement.” Eval (ez_write_tag ([[250,250], ‘stanforddaily_com-banner-1’, ‘ezslot_4’, 189, ‘0’, ‘0’););
Sterling Brown, a guard at the Bucks, recounted the time he was a victim of police brutality in an article in the Players’ Tribune last month.
Soon after, the Milwaukee Brewers’ players boycotted their major league game as opposed to the Cincinnati Reds. Players from the Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers and The San Francisco Giants announced that they would do the same in their respective games.
Players from the six WNAPs scheduled to play on Wednesday also boycotted their games.
“We’re not just basketball players,” Said Mystics goalkeeper Ariel Atkins. “If you think we are, don’t look at us. You watch the game because we are so much more than that … These moments are much bigger than us. Eval (ez_write_tag ([300,250], ‘stanforddaily_com-large -leaderboard-2′,’ ezslot_6 ‘, 190,’ 0 ‘,’ 0 ‘););
These athletes are first and foremost people. They risked their jobs and salaries to continue protesting racial injustice and continuing the verbal exchange of what tennis player Naomi Osaka called the “black genocide at the hands of the police.” In the same message, Osaka withdrew from the Western and South Open ahead of their semi-final match scheduled for Thursday.
However, before 2020, athletes who took positions on outdoor problems in the gaming world were widely criticized by the general public at times.
In 1967, when Muhammad Ali refused to fight in the Vietnam War because of his devout beliefs, he was arrested and in 24 hours stripped of the heavyweight boxing name and boxing license. It took four years and an appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn the decision. At that time, he has become one of the most hated men in America and lost four of his early years in the ring.
In 1968, after medalists at the 200-meter Summer Olympics, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos wore black socks without shoes and raised their fists to the national anthem to draw attention to black poverty in the United States and other racial injustices. They were subsequently suspended from the team and excluded from the Olympic Games. Back home, they and their families won death threats.
More recently, after the racism of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, politics and President Trump in a 2018 ESPN interview, Fox host Laura Ingraham told the duo to “shut up and dribble.”
And on August 26, 2016, almost exactly four years ago, Colin Kaepernick protested against the racism against blacks and the police brutality of the national anthem sitting on his team’s bench (he first knelt on September 1). He has been widely criticized for his movements through prominent figures such as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and President Trump, as well as enthusiastic and opposing players. eval (ez_write_tag ([300,250], ‘stanforddaily_com-leader-1’, ‘ezslot_5’, 191, ‘0’, ‘0’);
Since the end of this season, Kaepernick has not played a single football game. He took a stand and his football career ended accordingly. Just a month ago, after a recent high-ranking audience for knee-high protests and Black Lives Matter protests, Goodell replaced his mind. Goodell has also reversed his previous position and will allow players to kneel this season ahead. The voices of athletes will no longer have to be suffocated.
For years, the public and league officials have told athletes in their hallways. Adrian Wojnarowski, an NBA expert on ESPN, wrote in a recent tweet that “it’s a focal point for the NBA and the professional game in North America.”
In early July, a black athletes’ organization that added LeBron James and Skylar Diggins-Smith shaped More Than A Vote, a program to fight black voter repression. Since then, the organization has expanded to a total of 50 leading black athletes and artists.
“We focus on the systemic and selective suppression of the electorate in our network and have an express mission: to educate, energize and the black electorate,” the organization wrote in an open letter. “We are motivated by an unusual understanding that our influence and importance, especially among young people, is a duty to perpetuate the culture of black athletes who combine to fight for justice and equality.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association aired on a Friday delivering three commitments “to social justice and racial equality.” These come with the formation of a coalition for social justice, the race to turn all stadiums into polling stations for the 2020 elections and advertising “that promotes greater civic engagement.” On that, both sides agreed to continue the playoffs on Saturday.
As the NBA and other games start to recede, don’t forget that the game can’t work and can’t work in isolation. There can be no preference to return to the beyond normality that separated the game from social justice problems. African Americans continue to be oppressed by systemic racism and police brutality, and those responsible continue to separate substantive adjustments. Continuing to criticize athletes for their selection to boycott and using their platform to protest racial injustice is a planned ignorance of these ongoing atrocities.
Contact Jeremy Rubin at jjmrubin “en” stanford.edu.
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