Brothers in arms. Linked like the whole world should be and hopefully will one day. Down on one knee in matrimony with respect. For the flag. For our fathers. For the States they want to keep United.
“Racism still alive, they just be concealing it,” Kanye West once rapped on ‘Never Let Me Down.’ Which now seems like a million years ago for ‘The College Dropout’, who once told the whole nation watching a Hurricane Katrina relief programme that, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Standing beside a bewildered Mike Myers, back to a ‘Friday’, “DAAMMN” shocked faced Chris Tucker. It was ‘Ye’s world, before he let us down like he told us he never would, put on a MAGA hat and said, “slavery was a choice.” Still, we believe he can return to redemption like Mase, as Jesus walks like the King he is.
“Racism is not getting worse. It’s getting filmed,” Will Smith told Stephen Colbert years ago. Like Eric Garner in New York. As NBA players from Derrick Rose to LeBron James and the late, great Kobe Bryant wore black t-shirts that said, “I can’t breathe” like his last words.
Now only for Stephen Jackson’s “twin” George Floyd to say the same thing a mere months ago. As a cop had his knee on George’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Whilst his partners in crime just watched and threatened anyone that tried to put a stop to this madness that lasted longer than a split second, trigger decision, but rested in it’s inhumane choice for almost ten minutes.
And to think people still have a problem with NFL great Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the anthem.
Those who assume taking a knee is disrespecting the flag are probably also the same people who refuse to wear a mask because, “I don’t care if I get sick. I’ll be OK”.
Can you see where their mind and heart is at right now?
Whose disrespecting their country now?
Taking a knee silently and non violently like MLK is probably the most respectful stance you can take whilst making a peaceful protest in this day and age of toxic trolling on Twitter.
Nobody had a problem with former Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf covering his eyes with his hands during the anthem because of his religion in the dial-up 90’s. Did we forget about heroes like Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X who were put under fire for their religion?
Ask yourself what’s truly worse, taking a knee or putting one in a man’s neck until he takes his last breath? Kaepernick and every other teammate, player, sportsman, protestor and cop during this Black Lives Matter protest who took to their knee love America. They just love unity just as much.
Standing for social justice is what not only the NBA and WNBA, but this sport as a whole has always been about as they now kneel with heads bowed for justice and for peace.
From social messages written in tribute on sneakers for decades, to what reads on the back of players jerseys today. Ranging from ‘I Am A Man’ to ‘Say Their Names’ and every player in the WNBA saying the name, Breonna Taylor on the back of their uniforms until they arrest the cops as this season is for her.
In 2016 Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James stood side-by-side in black suits at the ESPY’s for an iconic moment that asked for change like Obama. It was an incredible act of patriotism, but nothing in this game was quite as inspirational as what left an indelible mark last night.
Like losing Kobe and GiGi in January.
The coronavirus that crippled the country, continent, planet and took so many lives of our loved ones. Staying safe at home, how fitting that Rudy Gobert had the first bucket of the official restart?
To the cops that needlessly took the lives of black men and women who weren’t guilty of anything, except the colour of their skin in a racist man’s eyes.
Where’s the justice?
Well, the NBA like the rest of us is searching and playing for it. Last night on the first night back, on the hallowed hardwood of the protected Bubble, shoulder to shoulder they linked arms on the baseline with the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ at their knees. The American flag above them. Representing something far more than stars, but the stripes of men coming together united.
It doesn’t matter who won the restart, because if this stand works like (fingers crossed) no new infections thus far, we all will
“I want us to be heard.” – LeBron James.
