‘That’s just what this country is.’ NBA players say Capitol rioters treated leniently
.jpg "From left: Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Tyrese Haliburton of the Sacramento Kings.")
On Wednesday night, losses in the NBA failed to reflect significantly in terms of importance outside the world of analytics. Same with wins. Both were a flaccid mirage, stolid next to the chaos that held the nation in a choke-hold, chaos fueled by supporters of President Donald Trump rioting at the Capitol earlier in the day.
Before the games tipped off, professional basketball players took to social media to express their horror and rage at the events that were unfolding. But when given the microphone after the games, basketball wasn’t their focal point.
“It’s shameful to keep calling them protesters,” Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “They’re not (expletive) protesters. They’re (expletive) terrorists.”
Green seemed uninterested in the hows or whys surrounding the Warriors’ 108-101 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers and instead drew contrast between law enforcement’s treatment of those rioting the Capitol and Black individuals protesting systemic racism.
“It’s baffling with the reaction that the law enforcement had and whoever else was involved from a authoritarian standpoint to see the National Guard standing on those same steps when there was a peaceful protest and now to see a terrorist attack and there was no National Guard,” Green said. “It just goes to show you where this country is and where this country has always been and probably where it’s going to stay, to be quite honest. Nothing’s changed. I think through social media and all of these different things we have at our fingertips today, we’re more aware of things. But nothing has changed. This is the same America that it’s been. It’s no different.”
Green went on to talk about how a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, did not face criminal charges after shooting Jacob Black seven times, leaving him paralyzed.
“It’s almost a slap in the face and almost a ‘(expletive) you’ to every Black person in America who goes through these things,” Green said. “It’s almost like they want to show you they have power and want to show you I can say, ‘(expletive) you and there is nothing you can do about it.’ And so that’s just what this country is and what this country’s been and probably where this country will stay.”
The NBA sounds off
Green wasn’t the only player to speak emotionally about the day’s event.
After Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo won the tipoff to start the game against the Detroit Pistons, Antetokounmpo pushed the ball out of bounds and both teams went down on a knee for 10 seconds.
Following the game, the two-time MVP spoke openly about being Black in America.
“At the end of the day, when I stop playing basketball and while I’m playing basketball, my kid is gonna grow up here in America,” Antetokounmpo said. “My kid is Black. And I can not imagine my kid going through what I see and what I see on the TV.
“If while I’m living and while I’m breathing, I can do something about it to even change it toward the better ... I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna speak out about it, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to educate myself and I’ve got to inform myself even more.”
Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers pondered what would have happened if the rioters had been people of color.
“Could you imagine?” Rivers said. “That, to me, is a picture that’s worth a thousand words for all of us to see. It’s something for us to reckon with, again. No police dogs turned on people. No billy clubs hitting people. People peacefully being escorted out of the Capitol.”
Prior to tipoff between the Sacramento Kings and the Chicago Bulls, the teams locked arms during the national anthem, following a pattern that other teams around the league set. Kings rookie Tyrese Haliburton sounded off after the game.
“What’s happening right now in our world and what happened today in particular is nothing but a joke,” he said. “With everything that’s going on, the losses of many African American lives and the plight of people of color and then for these human beings to come out and act like they’re being discriminated against because they lost a fair election or that they have to wear masks, is a complete joke.”
Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics marched in Georgia following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last spring, and has been constant voice in the Black Lives Matter movement. Brown vented his frustration after witnessing a sea of angry white people “carry out an attempted insurrection,” Sports Illustrated reported.
“It reminds me of what Dr. Martin Luther King said,” Brown said. “There are two Americas. In one you get killed for sleeping in your car. … In another America you can storm the Capitol. No tear gas, no massive arrests. None of that. It’s 2021. I don’t think anything has changed. Basketball is our profession. We are also men, we are also fathers. We want to continue to be voice for the voiceless.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 10:11 AM with the headline "‘That’s just what this country is.’ NBA players say Capitol rioters treated leniently."