Lately, the NBA has been in the news, both for their successful return to play and the players’ outspoken activism and strong support for the Black Lives Matter movement. This, as with everything related to BLM, has engendered a lot of controversy. Despite the beliefs of some, NBA players are not only well within their rights but are even obliged to use their wide-spread platforms to speak out for what they believe in and to act on those beliefs.

The NBA and the sports world at large has a long history of protest and of turning the gears of societal change. The league has stood for societal progress since 1961, when Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics boycotted a game in Lexington, Kentucky due to racial discrimination. It is a travesty that some of these same issues persist nearly 60 years later, and again we see basketball stars leading the charge, sitting games out in solidarity with the Black Americans that are too often killed extrajudicially by police.

It is an extremely narrow mindset to suggest that NBA players ought to be entertainers only. It is a mindset that harkens back to that Lexington restaurant that refused to respect Black Celtics the second they stepped off the hardwood. Eighty percent of the NBA is black, and 100% of that group has dealt with the pitfalls of being African-American. They may be rich and privileged now but that does not and never will shield them from being treated as less than by the bigots of America, of which there are far too many.

It is only right for the league’s players to take advantage of their position as well-educated, talented and wealthy Black men to make change in society, both in the court of public opinion and in the courtroom. We have seen teams like the Milwaukee Bucks work closely with their local and state legislature to find solutions for the rampant police brutality against Black Americans. Protest has been proven to work, and the larger the stage, the wider the reach it has.

Until people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Daniel Prude and countless other Black men and women stop being extrajudicially brutalized or killed, it behooves all those with strong beliefs and stronger voices to speak out and act on their behalf. It just so happens that the NBA is full of people who have both experienced the perils of being Black in America and have the platform from which to make change. If hearing these men speak and act on their experiences makes one uncomfortable, or if one wishes they would just “shut up and dribble,” they should think deeply about why that is and how that reflects on that person.

Photo from Flickr