"Ya Didn't Ask"...but these guys in the NBA are tired too.
Being black in America is effing exhausting. Life has enough challenges of its own, but the challenge that comes with being black is different and tiring-mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually tiring.
Everyone has an opinion on what NBA players, perhaps the most visible members of our community, should do with their platform. Play, don't play. Protest, don't protest. Take a knee, don't take a knee. Leave the bubble, stay in the bubble, they never should have gone to the bubble.
These guys are living out their dreams, as professional ball players nonetheless, and now some have the expectation that these professional ball players should take the mantle and lead the way in the decades long fight for human and civil rights.
There are no excuses. These gentlemen chose to train their bodies to pivot, finish at the rim, drain threes and make stepback jumpers. They then, in the spirit of the athletic ancestors who came before them, took it upon themselves to train their voices to speak against racism, injustice, police brutality, etc.
Being black in America is effing exhausting and these black men are tired. They should be. Black women in the WNBA are tired too. So tired that some decided not to play this season. Maya Moore hasn't played for multiple seasons...because being black AND fighting for black people AND playing ball is too much right now. Black women often see it first. The black men of the NBA are starting to recognize it too, so they took a couple of days off.
What happens now? None of us can predict it. We'll get an NBA champion out of the bubble. We'll get a WNBA champ as well. Sick and tired is a real thing and black fatigue requires days off. I'll end with a popular summary of why we're so doggone tired...
“We can't jog - Ahmaud Arbery. We can't relax in the comfort of our homes - Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor We can't ask for help after being in a car wreck - Jonathan Ferrell and Renisha McBride. We can't hold a cellphone - Stephon Clark. We can't leave a party to get to safety - Jordan Edwards. We can't listen to loud music - Jordan Davis. We can't sell CD's - Alton Sterling. We can't sleep in our beds - Aiyana Jones. We can't play cops and robbers - Tamir Rice. We can't walk home with skittles - Trayvon Martin. We can't get a traffic ticket - Sandra Bland. We can't lawfully carry a carry a weapon - Philando Castile. We can't go to church - the Charleston 9. We can't allegedly whistle – Emmett Till.”
"Everyone expects us to go out and play. I get it. But we needed some time....We needed some time to refocus and understand that we can do that. We're human..."
~ Chris Paul
We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones that were denied to live in certain communities. We’ve been hung. We’ve been shot. All you do is keep hearing about fear...It’s just ridiculous. It just keeps getting … It keeps going. There’s no charges. Brionna Taylor, no charges, nothing.
~ Doc Rivers
"We're tired of the killings and the injustice,"
~ George Hill
"My house has been burned to the ground, animals tortured and burned as well," Rivers' son Austin, tweeted out earlier. "Along with anything we ever loved, and held treasured, because of the color of my dad's skin. We lost everything and had to start over."
~ Austin Rivers
