The NBA is going through some turbulent moments right now and everybody wants to know what’s next for the association and the players. Three games were boycotted in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting on Wednesday and nobody knows what will happen now. Will the league suspend the remainder of the playoffs? Will the players decide to leave the bubble? Will they continue playing in a couple of days? Those questions don’t have a clear answer right now.
Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors explained why a strike wouldn’t be the best idea right now, since the NBA is a business, not just a league you can play every other Sunday without any inconvenience. Green replied on Instagram to a fan saying ‘sports can wait’, as to what Draymond explained the league is a business and to keep the business afloat, like any other major enterprise in the world, continue working is imperative.
“But why can sports wait? Because it’s a sport? It to is a business, like the many other businesses in the world. Why is it that sports can wait but other businesses should not? If that is the case why shouldn’t the CEO of YouTube boycott Alphabet? Or the President of Apple boycott the company? But you say basketball can wait… Is it because sports(the platform) has afforded the athletes involved such huge platforms? Or maybe the athletes involved past and present actually afforded sports those platforms, that the many athletes currently have today(that’s neither here nor there). The notion that athletes should just stop working but no one else in the world should stop is baffling to me. Why stop doing the very thing that offers you the biggest platform to speak for those that look like me/a lot of us. To do that is to actually give up the platform to speak for them, because without us using our platforms which is afforded by the influence of the sport, it actually stops us from echoing what those in the back are saying. Those people then will never truly be heard. Athletes stand with the people, no secret there, but to actually tell athletes to stop doing what provides that platform to speak for the people is actually counterproductive. In my opinion,” Green wrote.
This is my response/many questions to a guy that said sports can wait. pic.twitter.com/OShzslHnwI
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 27, 2020
He also showed his support to his fellow NBA players but made it clear that their next steps have to be firm so that they can keep building a platform to speak out against racial injustices.
I stand with my brothers in the bubble continuing to stand for what’s right and fight the oppression of Black People. But I do hope that they understand, that we too have a job to do, which is continue building that very platform that we are using to speak for OUR PEOPLE!
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 27, 2020
Making headlines is great. The attention has been grabbed. Now the next steps are more important now than ever. But it’s not just athletes, the next steps from the black community as an entirety. The next steps from the White community that supports being apart of the change…
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 27, 2020
that blacks has been suffering from for hundreds of years! Now is that time. Platforms has been used to get the attention that we all has so desperately wanted for a long time. Now the way we move as a unit is critical!
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 27, 2020
Trusting each other, supporting each other! Pushing those narratives and putting in action all that we can for those people that can’t put it in action. Use the platform for them. Be very tactical and super specific of everything we want and desperately need!
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 27, 2020
A final decision on this matter is yet to be made, but Green has a strong position on how things should be made from now on.
