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Tim BontempsESPN
While much of the country on Wednesday afternoon was trying to wrestle with the scenes that emerged from Washington, while angry supporters of President Trump stormed the US Capitol, much of the sports world was trying to figure out how the day’s events can be processed.
For the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, that meant they had to leave court shortly before their game in Miami, while the two teams issued a joint statement just before the tip.
“2021 is a new year, but some things have not changed,” the statement said. “We are playing tonight with a heavy heart after yesterday’s decision in Kenosha, and the knowledge that protesters in the capital of our country are treated differently by political leaders, depending on the side of certain issues. The drastic difference between the way in which protesters were last spring and summer was treated and the encouragement of today’s protesters who acted illegally shows just how much more work we need to do.
“We have decided to play tonight’s game to bring joy into people’s lives. But we must not forget the injustices in our society, and we will continue to use our voices and our platform to highlight these issues and do everything in our power to work for a more equal and just America. “
The statement concluded with the hashtag “BLACKLIVESSTILLMATTER.”
Most players from both teams also took a knee during the national anthem.
It was a tumultuous 24 hours, beginning with prosecutors’ decision Tuesday not to file charges for the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 23. and it took on the violent transgression of the American Capitol that forced lawmakers to rush to safety when they met to formally count the election votes that Joe Biden will make president on January 20th.
Meanwhile, Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were named the winners of the U.S. Senate run-off in Georgia. Warnock’s opponent, Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler, said Wednesday night that she would not object to the election votes for Biden after what happened at the Capitol. She intended to object.
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr called the events of the day “a clear reminder that the truth matters.”
“Millions of people are suddenly questioning a legitimate election, including many of the people who lead our country in government, because we have decided to tell lies over the last few years. So that’s who we are. You reap what you sow.”
The Warriors, many of them wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, knelt down with the LA Clippers for the national anthem before their game aired Wednesday night at Chase Center.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he and his players discussed the decision in the Blake case on Wednesday morning, but that he did not have the chance to speak to them after everything that happened in Washington this afternoon. .
“I watched everything,” Stevens said during his predictive media availability ahead of Boston’s 107-105 victory. “I’m sure our players watched it all. I’m sure everyone watched it all. I think my reaction is sad. I think the way I look at it, I think we all hope that the people we choose to lead we are supposed to form leadership, will do so in a way that is motivated by serving others, by showing compassion, by acting gracefully.Instead, we have elected a president … and others who do not have that kind of grace.
“It was consistent. And they just had a ‘win at all costs’ attitude … Our sports world is much less important, of course, but I’ve always thought if you have a ‘win’ work cost attitude at all “It’s going to be a pretty low and unfulfillable end. And in this situation a shameful end.”
With Washington under curfew from 6pm ET Wednesday to 6pm Thursday, the George Washington basketball game against UMass was postponed for Wednesday night.
National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski there were no talks with the NBA about postponing one of the 11 games scheduled for Wednesday night. The Washington Wizards played the 76ers in Philadelphia.
And NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said there was no change in the status of this weekend’s wild card game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Football Team in Landover, Maryland.
Around the NBA, however, it was an emotional day as the league tried to grapple with the swirling emotions of the Blake decision, the victories of the Senate and the storm of the Capitol.
For 76ers coach Doc Rivers, who was part of many discussions about how the league could bubble its platform in Orlando, Florida during the NBA reboot, it was a moment to remember that these efforts were not in vain. .
“But what it is not … is an attack on democracy,” Rivers said, adding, “Democracy will triumph. It always does.”
Rivers did draw a contrast between how the Black Lives Matter protests were handled during the summer in Washington, with ‘the police and the national guard and the military’, and how the pro-Trump mob was handled on Wednesday – ‘no police dogs attacked people, no bells ringing people. People peacefully escorted out of the Capitol. It therefore shows that you can spread a multitude peacefully.
“It basically proves a point about a privileged life in many ways,” Rivers said. “I will say this because I do not think many people want to: can you think today if it were all black people storming the Capitol, and what would have happened? This is for me a picture worth a thousand words for all of us to see, and probably something to reckon with again. ‘
Few places, meanwhile, have felt the emotions of the past 24 hours more than Atlanta, where Warnock became the first black man to be elected to the Senate by the state of Georgia.
But for Lloyd Pierce, the coach of the Atlanta Hawks, who was at the forefront of the organization’s push to cast the ballot, both during the general election in November and the special election that just took place, was what he saw on Wednesday. has, not unexpectedly. .
“It’s tragic,” Pierce said. “I think it’s honest, sad. I think it’s a sad reality … It’s a shame this is what we’re looking at in our country after the year we’ve been through. But it’s not unexpected. One day for someone like me, an African American man, to … see someone like Raphael Warnock become the first African American man to represent the state of Georgia going to the Senate and you see the next day that’s the reaction “That’s the reality.”
Pierce reflected Rivers by noting the difference in how the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were treated by local authorities, compared to the treatment of those who protested peacefully most of the summer.
“There’s a reason why there’s no shooting and brutality and looting and stuff like that, and that people just walk around the Capitol building like it’s nothing. [Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi’s office as if it were nothing, “he said. We all understand that there would now be guns on fire and fires on fire if it was black people protesting. If it was black people protesting outside, we would not even say that people come in and tear the country apart [Capitol] building.
“But none of this is going to change until we acknowledge that there is a big difference in the treatment of black people in terms of law enforcement, and that just did not happen.”
And in the midst of it all, players and coaches have been trying to figure out how to stay focused on the task as they take in everything that happens around them.
“There are so many layers to it,” Houston Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “There’s what’s going on at the Capitol building, and then there’s the reason, and then there’s the reason for it – the division and all this other stuff. There’s a long history of division in our country when it comes to political party “But there seems to be more division in humanity right now. That’s what I’m struggling with right now and what I’m struggling with.”
Russell Wilson, quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, also spoke of the need to “come together as a nation,” adding, “we need safety for our children and people.”
Others expressed disbelief about the day’s events.
“I’m 59 and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Orlando Magic coach Steve Clifford. “Our country is laughed at all over the world. From the way we handled the pandemic so far … it’s a sad day for everyone. ‘
In Phoenix, where the Suns and Toronto Raptors stood in a circle and linked the American and Canadian national anthems, Suns coach Monty Williams said he, as a former athlete and now coach, is mindful of the platform he got, along with other professional athletes, “to help when we can. We don’t necessarily have to solve problems, but we can be part of some of the solutions.”
But, “when I look at what I see and what I saw earlier today, I find it difficult to figure out ways to help such a situation. I do not know how to be part of the solution as it relates. . after what went on today. ‘
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin, Royce Young and Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.