LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown says he is skeptical that NBA owners will back up their promises to support NBA players in their push for social justice.
“I’m not sure,” Brown said on a Zoom conference call Saturday afternoon. “I can’t speak for everyone. I can only speak for myself, and I’m not sure. I’m not sure how much I want, I’ll say it.
“I think the promises are made year after year. We have heard a lot of these terms and words before. We heard them in 2014 – reform. We are still hearing them now. Many of them are just reshaping the same ideas and nothing is really happening. Long-term goals are one thing, but I think there are things in our wheelhouse as athletes with our resources and the people we’re connected to that short-term effect is possible.
“Everyone keeps saying, ‘Change will take this, change will take that.’ This is the idea of incrementalism that pulls you forward to make you feel like something is going to happen, something is going to happen. People were dying in 2014, and it is 2020 and people are still dying the same way. They keep saying “reform, reform, reform,” and nothing is being reformed. I’m not sure how much I would like. “
Brown was one of the NBA’s most outspoken players in the fight for social justice and police reform and to combat racial inequality. He drove to his native Atlanta to lead a protest while the season was suspended, and has repeatedly spoken of his desire to see the changes take place.
During Wednesday night’s meeting between players in the wake of the Milwaukee Bucks who chose not to play their playoff match against the Orlando Magic, Brown asked his fellow players that if they were going to leave the bubble, they would be would they simply go home, or would they go and protest the changes everyone wanted?
Part of Brown’s hesitation to support the owners stems from his belief that they hadn’t already gone far enough with one of the axes of the three-part initiative that the NBA, in partnership with the National Basketball Players Association, launched Friday afternoon as part of the official announcement of the playoffs resuming on Saturday.
Brown said that while the NBA owners have agreed to make any team-owner-owned arena a venue that can be used as a voting center, originally all 29 NBA arenas should have been involved.
“Initially, when we got into those discussions with the board of governors, every arena had to be the case, not just the arenas that were owned by the team we play for,” Brown said. “Every arena has to be open. Voter suppression is real. I don’t understand why it’s a problem or this is a problem. But every arena should be open, it should be accessible to have people of color, disadvantaged people feel. as if they could vote.
“Voting shouldn’t be that difficult. It shouldn’t be that much of a gap between them. It should be something easy. Still, there [are] fewer and fewer votes in certain communities, fewer and fewer workers in certain communities. And it makes it extremely difficult. It’s difficult, it already is. It makes it even more difficult to go out and vote. So, I’d like to see every NBA team that, regardless of what has been agreed … open [their arena] and I’d like to see more players and athletes, influential people, take him to their hometowns to fight this. “
Despite his reservations, Brown praised the work the NBA and players have done in Orlando, but also expressed his frustration at how the work they have done hasn’t led to the changes he would like to see.
“I think the NBA did a good job initially putting in Black Lives Matter, our jerseys have a message behind them, TV timeouts, we’ve done a lot of videos, and it’s still not enough,” Brown said. “People are still being killed on the street and America’s climate is still the same.”
He also commended the Bucks, as he did during that bout Wednesday, for their decision not to play, and emphasized the awareness it has led to the causes players are fighting for. He also said, on multiple occasions, that “It could be done again” if a situation arose where it was necessary.
Brown, however, expressed disappointment at the content of that meeting which became public and, in particular, at how it was described as a divisive or negative moment. He said he was very pleased with the speeches that emerged from that conversation and said that having the rare opportunity to bring players and coaches from 13 teams together in one room together was an advantage and unifying.
“It was supposed to be a private meeting, and I have seen some of the headlines, and I think there is an emphasis on splitting what happened in those meetings, but what is not being talked about is the unification shown,” He said . “There were a lot of guys in the room who were in a lot of pain. We’ve all seen recent videos, and we’ve seen videos over the years, and frankly we feel helpless and tired. I was proud to see a lot of guys come here and share emotions and have real conversations in the room Instead, people are focused on splitting conversations, but to be honest, getting all those guys in the same room to talk about one thing was important.
“There are a lot of guys who came here for reasons other than basketball and to use our platforms. Milwaukee has done exactly that, and if necessary it could be done again. Hopefully it doesn’t, but using our platform is because many guys came here “.
.
