Stephen Jackson sent a strong message to the NBA and their plans to resume play next month. The league is set to return in late July or early August, but not every player wants to go to Orlando and play basketball amid nationwide protests.
Jackson has become an important voice against racism and police brutality after his close friend George Floyd was killed at the hands of four police officers last month. Jackson has been very outspoken about racial issues in America and now he sent a message showing his disapproval of the 2019-2020 NBA regular season continuing in Orlando in July. Just like other players like Kyrie Irving or Dwight Howard, Jackson said there are bigger issues right now.
“I love the NBA man, that’s my family,” Jackson said in an Instagram video. “But now ain’t the time to be playing basketball y’all. Now ain’t the time. Playing basketball is gonna do one thing, take all the attention off the task at hand right now and what we fighting for.”
Moreover, he took a shot at ‘white owners’ for not taking a stand and show support to their fight, saying they only care about all the money they’ll make when the league resumes.
“Everybody gonna be worried about the playoffs, they gonna have that blasting all over the TV, and nobodies gonna be talking about getting justice for all these senseless murders by these police and nobody’s gonna be focused on the task at hand,” Jackson continued. “None of these white owners have spoken up, none of ’em are taking a stand. Yeah, they might post a video when the season start of saying what we should do, but they ain’t doing nothing. Playing basketball ain’t gonna do nothing but make them money and take attention off what we fighting for.”
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1271980376261636096
Jackson is supporting Kyrie’s stance on the NBA return. The number of players who don’t see with good eyes going to Orlando to play increases by the day and it’s getting normal to see retired and active players speaking out against the NBA resuming play next July. Still, the league hasn’t changed its mind about the 22-team tournament that will take place in Orlando.
