Boston Celtics goalkeeper Jaylen Brown will back his promises to help players in their efforts for social justice.
“I’m sure,” Brown said on a Zoom call saturday, via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
“I can’t speak for everyone. I can only speak for myself, and I’m not sure. I’m not as sure of myself as I’d like, I’ll say it.
“I think promises are made year after year. We’ve heard many of those terms and words before. We heard them in 2014: reform. We still hear them now. Many of them are simply reshaping the same concepts and nothing is happening. Long-term goals are one thing, but I think there are things in our helms company as athletes with our resources and the other people with which we are connected to this short-term effect is also possible.”
It also gave an update on the lack of progress that has been being made in recent years despite calls for change.
Brown talked about 2014, a pivotal year for the NBA. It should be noted that the Los Angeles Clippers protested after the owner at the time, Donald Sterling, got stuck making racist comments on a recording. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has kicked Sterling out of the league.
Brown added:
“Everybody keeps saying, ‘Change is going to take this, change is going to take that.’ That’s the incrementalism idea that keeps stringing you along to make you feel like something’s going to happen, something’s going to happen. People were dying in 2014, and it’s 2020 and people are still dying the same way. They keep saying ‘reform, reform, reform,’ and ain’t nothing being reformed. I’m not as confident as I would like to be.”
Later, in 2014, the league wore “I Can’t Breathe” jerseys in honor of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man from Staten Island, New York, who died after police subjected him to a banned strangulation.
Brown in high school at the time, and that year marked a pivotal moment for him also after a teacher’s offensive comment about him:
https://t.co/Lk6zdgeZFW
Starting on the current date, the NBA and NBPA released a Friday describing a three-point plan to pursue social justice initiatives, adding the formation of a coalition for social justice, turning the arenas of NBA governors teams into voting rooms, and adding ads designed to better publicize civic engagement and teach others about voter suppression.
NBA and NBPA JOINT Statement: https://t.co/EFp6fG9oZs
Brown questioned the point about the arenas of the teams, arguing that everyone deserves to be open and used as voting services than those who are only owned by the governors of the league.
“Initially, when we entered those discussions with the Board of Governors, it was intended that both camps would be the case, not just the fields that belonged to the team for which we played. All fields have to be open. The suppression of the electorate is real. I don’t understand why it’s a challenge or it’s a challenge. But both of you will have to be open, they will have to be available for other people of color, deprived of other people who feel they can vote.”
According to Bontemps, a handful of NBA groups have committed to their arenas as polling places, adding the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets and Utah Jazz. The same goes for the Los Angeles Clippers and the New York Knicks.