Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers and team governor Steve Ballmer spoke with Trevor Noah tonight on the Daily Social Distancing Show, revealing that players and team owners will work together to influence legislation and increase voter registration.
Asked why the work strike occurred, Rivers said: “The players literally need to catch their breath. As I said before, it doesn’t escape me that George Floyd never allowed himself to take that breath. But our players did it. In this way, they were able to refocus and find tangible things they wanted to do. “
Basketball Assn.’s “bubble” environment in Orlando for how the players reacted to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin." data-reactid="30">Rivers blamed the isolation of the National Basketball Assn’s “bubble” environment. In Orlando for how the players reacted to the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Because usually when something like this happens, you are with your families, you can comfort your children and try to explain what’s going on in America or that city,” Rivers said. “They haven’t been able to do it.” He added: “The players neither hear nor see it. They don’t know exactly what’s going on. “
Asked if he felt it was a burden to have to find a global solution to racism on the fly, Ballmer admitted: “I think it’s a little different. I don’t know how to talk to everyone, but we have players, people like me who are citizens, and getting out of there, using our voices, arguing, that’s the American way.
basketball. That’s about democracy.”" data-reactid="37">“Come out, there are people who propose bills like the Justice and Policing Act, the George Floyd Bill, great. There are many good things in it. Let’s get the House and Senate together. I’m just a citizen on this one. I have something of a voice. Our players even have a stronger voice and, you know, it happens. It’s not about basketball. It is about democracy “.
Ballmer said he and Rivers had a “great” encounter with the team. “I don’t have the experience of growing up black in the United States. The whole fear of the police stops, what they mean, where they go and the importance of really being able to have higher levels of accountability, so that both the system and an approach that works equally for all Americans. ” cited mentoring programs and teachers as having the greatest influence on the situation.
As for the discussion of silence and dribbling that some have done on the players’ strike, Rivers denied the premise.
“First of all, we are playing games. We are doing our job. More importantly, politics is part of our daily life and therefore, if you are not part of it, it will be involved with you. Also, some of these are related issues. to human rights. You know, I think human rights issues are political, and they are not. What is right and what is wrong, and we should all talk. And our players have decided that it is not our job to do everything, right “But it’s our responsibility to get involved because we want it. And there’s nothing wrong with that, and I love that our kids are doing it and I think they’re doing it sensationally.”
Ballmer promised that players and owners together would involve arenas in voter registration and voter suppression issues, “all of these things. We will also form a group with this coalition to fight only single things. George Floyd’s bill, it’s in the House, just passed the House. It will probably stay there for a while, but this is where the vote comes in. “
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