These days the videos come every month or so. Shock from the recorded killing of George Floyd didn’t even have time to dim before a fresh video — this one the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin — poured salt in an open wound this week.
“Everything on me was on fire (Monday), waking up to it,” Jaylen Brown said after Tuesday’s Celtics practice.
He was particularly upset by subsequent references to Blake’s police record.
“To see people changing the framing of what he did in the past, in terms of, ‘Well, he was a convicted felon,’ or, ‘Well, he had a history of resisting arrest or possibly had a weapon’ that is not unfamiliar framework in this country,” said the Celtics forward. “We’ve seen that time and time again. That does not constitute or justify the fact that you are shooting someone seven times in the back or killing them, at all. Anybody who thinks differently is no friend of mine.”
Brown suspects there are a lot of people in that group. He’ll also never look at his number the same again.
“The question that I would like to ask is, does America think that Black people or people of color are uncivilized, savages, or naturally unjust, or are we products of the environments that we participate in? That’s the question I would like to ask America, and America has proven its answer over and over and over again,” he said. “Are we not human beings? Is Jacob Blake not a human being? I don’t care if he did something 10 years ago, 10 days ago, or 10 minutes ago.
“If he served his sentence and he was released back into society, he still deserves to be treated like a human and does not deserve to be shot in the back seven times with the intent to kill,” said Brown. “His kids will never unsee that. His family will never unsee that. And frankly, I will never unsee it. People post my jersey all the time, number seven, and every time I look at my jersey now, what I see is a Black man getting shot seven times. All America sees is his background, or his background before. It’s easier to see that than it is to see the truth.”
As such, there has been discussion among players — many who worried that their social justice messaging would be dulled once the games began — about many potential actions, including a player boycott.
Toronto’s Fred VanVleet, asked if a potential boycott of Game 1 against the Celtics was discussed during a team meeting, said, “A number of things are being discussed but I’ll keep that between our team. We’re dealing with it in real time and I think it affects everybody differently. It’s pretty fresh on my mind and I’m sitting in front of a camera, so I’m just speaking as I’m going. But, yeah, there’s a lot of different things that we’ve discussed.”
The Raptors guard stressed that something, though, has to be done by the most outspoken player group in professional sports.
“At the end of the day if we’re gonna sit here and talk about making change then at some point we’re gonna have to put our nuts on the line and actually put something up to lose, rather than just money or visibility,” said VanVleet.
Marcus Smart, asked the same question, admitted that the possibility of a boycott has, “been talked about. We aren’t really sure, we haven’t confirmed anything but it’s definitely something in the back of our minds.
“Something needs to change,” said the Celtics guard. “Like I said, it’s more important than basketball right now. It’s definitely a thought and we have to talk more with each other and try to get on the same page and make sure that we are communicating the right way.”
Brown, too, acknowledged that the subject of not playing has been floated by players. He also acknowledged that after his activity prior to arriving in the bubble, including leading a march in his hometown of Atlanta after the Floyd killing, there’s a sense of powerlessness now that he’s in the Orlando bubble.
“In a sense you feel very helpless. Here in the bubble you want to do more. I feel like I should be out there protesting, with a lot of people who are doing that now,” said Brown. “But I’m here in the bubble playing basketball. I do think the NBA has done a great job initially to give us the platform to speak on certain things and things like that. But I do kind of feel it’s lessened as the playoffs have gotten started. Things have kind of diminished.
“I’m curious to see what creative ways people put their minds together to continue to push these conversations to make me feel more comfortable about playing basketball in the middle of a lot of the things that are going on,” he said. “I know I’m not a politician or an elected official or whatever, but I still care about my community. I still care about what’s going on in the world. I have family and I have cousins and I have people who have history with the police, or have been convicted of felonies, etc., and I want them to be able to be treated fairly, but most people just want me to just shut up and dribble.”
The Link LonkAugust 26, 2020 at 06:59AM
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/08/25/0825-bh-s-celtics/
Jacob Blake shooting sparks fresh outrage among NBA players - Boston Herald
https://news.google.com/search?q=fresh&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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