The Sacramento Kings offered a message of support to the community and protesters that linked arms outside of Thursday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.
The Kings stayed quiet on social media before and throughout the game, only releasing a statement to the media explaining why they closed off access to the venue from the outside as protesters prevented fans from entering Golden 1 Center.
After the game, though, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive took the court with Kings players to address the small crowd that was left inside the building before security shut down entry on Thursday night.
https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/977045714902466562
Ranadivé began by extending sympathies to the family of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old man gunned down by police in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento on Sunday. His death was the reason for the protests, which forced arena officials to turn thousands of fans away and lock the building before the game began.
“On Sunday we had a horrific, horrific tragedy in our community, and on behalf of the players, the executives ownership and the entire Kings family, I first of all wanted to express our deepest sympathies to the family,” Ranadivé said. “What happened was absolutely horrific. We are so very sorry, so very sorry for your loss.”
The Kings owner then acknowledged the protest itself, including the community’s right to protest and the commitment the Kings organization has to helping the community in this time.
“I also wanted to say that we at the Kings recognize your people’s ability to protest peacefully and we respect that. We here at the Kings recognize that we have a big platform. It’s a privilege but it’s also a responsibility. It’s a responsibility the we take very seriously and we stand here before you — old, young, black, white, brown, and we all united in our commitment.
We recognize that it’s not just business as usual and we’re going to work really hard to bring everyone together to make the world a better place, starting with our own community. And we’re going to work really hard to prevent this kind of a tragedy from happening again.”
Letting Ranadivé address the crowd here is an extraordinary result of the protest itself. And his point is clear: the Kings understand their “platform” elevates the voice of those outraged by police brutality and the death of yet another young African American man. But the Kings stressed that the protest was not an inconvenience to them, rather part of being part of a community that wants change. It seems like, after his words on Thursday night, they have the Kings’ support, too.
