The NBA has officially started again after being suspended in March as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, and it began with a major statement about social justice, racial equality and the right to peacefully protest.
The Los Angeles Lakers faced the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday, July 30, in Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, and all players, coach and staff knelt for the national anthem, which was performed by musician and activist Jon Batiste. Some of the players locked arms, others put their hands around each other’s soldiers and some raised a fist.
The kneeling, done to make a statement about racial inequality, took place behind large letters that read Black Lives Matter, and all players wore Black Lives Matter shirts.
In Thursday’s previous game featuring the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans, both teams, their coaches and staff protested in the same way before tipoff.
Nationwide protests sparked after George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May. Some NBA players joined those marches, while others have supported them on social media.
When the NBA announced in June that play would resume in Florida, some players voiced concern that playing would take away attention from the current fight for racial equality. Perhaps starting both games on Thursday by kneeling was the players’ way of showing that social justice comes before basketball.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James spoke about kneeling directly after the game and said basketball is far more than just a sport or form of entertainment.
“The game of basketball has always been bigger than just a ball and a rim and 10 guys on the floor, four referees,” he explained. “We used this platform to spread a lot of positive, a lot of love throughout the course of the whole world.”
Kneeling for the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality was started by Colin Kaepernick, who began doing it in 2016 while playing for the San Francisco 49ers.
