With the NBA set to resume play on Saturday, players from around the league continue to speak out on social issues and look to impact change in their communities. It’s why they refused to play Wednesday and Thursday, protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which sparked tons of excellent conversation on race, racism, and police on sports networks, as well as leading to some tangible efforts to effect change.
The Bucks, who started the movement not to play (to the surprise of others), were able to begin a push to get the Wisconsin state legislature called back for a special session to vote on a police reform bill. The league and players union announced a three-part plan of action, creating a social justice coalition, offering PSAs and advertising about voting throughout the playoffs, and turning all team-owned arenas into voting locations.
For Draymond Green, while he’s not in the Bubble, he’s been proud watching his NBA brethren from the outside as they fight for this change, and went on CNN — where he was announced as a new CNN contributor — to talk with Jake Tapper about what’s going on in the NBA. Tapper played a clip of president Donald Trump’s recent comments on the NBA, to which Green had a strong retort, via Sopan Deb of the New York Times.
https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/1299447737365209089
Green also explained why he was glad to see the players choose to resume the season, citing the platform they have while games are happening as the biggest microphone for them to continue speaking out, and also offered thoughts on what needs to be changed and what the NBA can do to impact that.
Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green says the NBA should keep playing.
“If we leave our stage and we drop our microphone, we could no longer speak for these people that we are speaking for … We’re taking resources away from ourselves to be able to continue this fight.” pic.twitter.com/nfb1Ty9BNQ— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 28, 2020
It is an, unsurprisingly, well thought out and articulated argument from one of the league’s most vocal players. Green is expanding his commentary from working with TNT as an analyst during the Bubble seeding round and now joining CNN to speak on much more than just basketball.
