We Matter

by Etan Thomas

  Blake: Honestly, my initial reaction wasn’t even to think on those terms. I was so vulnerable at the time that I just wanted to forget about it and never think about it again. I just wanted the whole thing to go away, but thinking about it through my wife’s eyes, that this could happen to someone . . . in a situation where the cop is completely in the wrong and the outcome is fatal, I later saw that I had the opportunity to do something instead of being selfish and brushing this under the rug and never talking about it again, I have the opportunity to help more people that this could happen to. And I have had so many people since then come up to me and say, “This kind of thing happened to me,” “This kind of thing happened to my brother,” “This kind of thing happened to my cousin.”

  And the other reaction I am getting from people is just utter disbelief that this actually happened to someone that they know. And even if they don’t personally know me, they may be a tennis fan or they read my book and they don’t know Walter Scott and they don’t know Terence Crutcher and they don’t know these other people who have been actually murdered. But now they have a personal connection to a case because the other cases just seemed so far away. For some people my case made it hit home for them and showed them that this could happen to anyone. And this made me realize that I needed to let people know that, yeah, this stuff still happens and happens way too often.

  Etan: How could people think that this doesn’t happen?

  Blake: Well, one of the things you have to understand is the cops are the ones who are directing the media. With my case, and typically in most cases, they are the ones directing all the rhetoric, all the sound bites, all the press clippings, and it makes you realize how tremendous their PR machine really is. The way they handled this situation was really incredible. So, this happened on September 9. We tried to get the video from the hotel and they said they couldn’t release it to us, but they could release it to the police if they got a warrant, so they kept telling us no, they can’t give it to us. No, they can’t release it, and we eventually said, “No, we are going to subpoena you if you don’t give it to us,” and they said, “Okay, we’ll give it to you.” They kept stalling us, this is after we subpoenaed them. “We’ll give it to you, we just gotta get it all together and finish paperwork, etc., etc. Give us a half an hour we’ll get it to you.”

  This is after we were done being cordial and nice, after we served them with a subpoena. So, in that half an hour they released it on their own, purposely on September 11 because they knew we couldn’t make a big media thing against the police on 9/11. And in the days leading up to that, they kept saying that they couldn’t release the picture of the person who they were actually looking for because this was an ongoing investigation, etc. “But rest assured, the person looked just like him. This wasn’t racially based, just the person looked a lot like James Blake and it was an honest mistake that anyone could’ve made.” Those were their talking points. Then they finally put out a picture, and sure enough, the person did resemble me, but then I find out that this person in the picture has been in Australia, has a famous sunglasses business there, and hasn’t been in the States for like ten years.

  But they wanted to control this PR by finding a picture and putting it out. I even wonder if they just found this picture on Instagram or Facebook or Google Images and found someone who looks like me. So people who haven’t been following the story saw that and thought, Well, yeah, the person does look like him and that was on the news so it looks like just an honest mistake. And that’s just how they have so much control over public perception through the NYPD’s PR machine. If you’re James Blake the plumber or James Blake the electrician, you have no chance of getting anything accomplished when you’re up against this kind of a machine. You’re completely at their mercy. You’re supposed to trust the police. They’re supposed to have your best interest at heart. Protect and serve, and a lot of people don’t have that trust because of these certain officers that do their jobs the wrong way, and if I was a police officer who did things the right way, I would be just as upset at a civilian getting tackled because it makes their job tougher.

  It makes the good cops’ jobs tougher because now I’m scared. Every encounter I have with the police, I’m not going to go into it in a trusting way or think that they have my best interest at heart. I’m going to be scared that they’re going to do the same thing again. And a lot of people who have been in a situation like this where they are a victim of police brutality are going to feel the same way, and that’s completely unfair to the good cops.

  Etan: Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Police Commissioner Bratton called you to apologize. You said that you appreciated their apologies, but their apologies weren’t enough. You pointed out that had you been somebody else who wasn’t a famous tennis player, you wouldn’t have received an apology. It is really important for you to be doing what you’re doing, so my hat’s definitely off to you, sir.

  Blake: No thanks needed. This is what I honestly feel I have to do, like I have no choice . . . I don’t want to have one meeting—you guys apologize, take a couple of pictures—and then move on with my life as if nothing happened, because I know there are enough people who are not getting this type of treatment and something has to be done to change this.

  Interview with Thabo Sefolosha

  During my time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, one of my teammates was Thabo Sefolosha. My daughter Imani played with his daughters. My wife was very pregnant with Baby Sierra at the time, and his wife, Bertille, would come over to the house and help her. We were close. Thabo has a quiet, reserved demeanor. He is one of the most laid-back guys I have ever met. In the locker room, he would sit in the corner icing his knees and just listen to all of the guys debate about whatever the day’s topic was. Which is why, when I saw how the news outlets, even the sports news outlets, were reporting Thabo’s nightclub incident on April 8, 2015, how the police described him as though he had taken on an entire police force by himself, I knew that couldn’t be the real story.

  Other former teammates chimed in, like guard Reggie Jackson, quoted in the Detroit Free Press: “I think a lot of people fear Black males so it’s scary. I’m not gonna lie, it’s kind of unfair at times as a Black male. Only thing I feel protects us is probably the celebrity status and being an NBA player, but nobody is off limits when you see what happens to a former teammate like Thabo.”

  I had a particular issue with the absence of coverage on ESPN when this took place. It was almost as if they were acting like nothing had happened. Like Thabo was just missing in the Eastern Conference Finals because he hurt his leg by accident or something. It was weird. They just weren’t reporting it and discussing it. The NYPD were actually on tape breaking an NBA player’s leg, and it wasn’t big news. I couldn’t understand why. Especially given that there was a league-wide movement of players speaking out against police brutality and killings after Eric Garner was murdered. I was watching in hopes of a show discussing what had happened to my former teammate and someone I considered a friend—but nothing. It was as if there was an intentional media blackout.

  I remember watching Mike & Mike and they were discussing how the Hawks would be able to guard LeBron without Thabo, and they barely mentioned Thabo’s situation. They brushed over it, saying something to the effect of, “Well, he won’t be available because of the situation we all know about.” I literally repeated out loud, “The situation we all know about? You mean where the police broke his leg!!!”

  I was glad to be able to sit down with Thabo and have him tell in his own words everything that happened, the action he took against the NYPD, and how this can serve as an example and inspiration to other athletes.

  Thabo Sefolosha was a great teammate and a great person. Much respect to him for suing the NYPD after they unjustly broke his leg.

  Etan: What happened in New York City?

  Thabo Sefolosha: I was coming out of the club, and it was the night of the stabbing of a fellow NBA player, and as I was comin
g out, I see the yellow Do Not Cross line, so I go to the opposite side and I just stand there. So I am already many feet away from what was going on. One of the officers rushes at me and says, “You cannot be here, you gotta get out of here now.” So I kept moving. I wasn’t running away or even jogging away, and I still to this day don’t know if that’s what he expected me to do, but I was walking away. And he keeps pressing me in particular, and I’m looking around at all the people who are just standing around, but he is telling me to leave as if I did something wrong. I told him I was moving and I was following his orders. You can talk to people nicely. Just because you are an officer doesn’t mean that you can talk to people that way. And he is just getting more and more agitated, and I have no idea why because I am following his orders . . .

  So I kept going and there were three or four officers around me at this point, and there was an SUV parked there and I asked the lady if it was okay if we come in the car. So, as I am entering the car, this homeless guy comes up to me and says, “Do you have something for me?” I looked around to where the officers were because I knew that anything would be like a reason to do something, and I saw they were looking back at me, and I said, “Hey, I am just giving this guy some money,” so I go and make a few steps and one of the officers jumped in front of me and pushed the homeless man away from me.

  Etan: Oh wow.

  Sefolosha: That was my reaction as well—I was shocked that he would actually push a homeless man who did nothing but ask for some money. So . . . I said, “Here, take this money,” and that’s when one of the officers grabbed my arm and said, “That’s it, now you’re going to jail.”

  Etan: They didn’t say anything to your teammate who was with you?

  Sefolosha: No, no, no. Just me. And my teammate was actually behind me, so he was closer to the yellow line. But once the one policeman grabbed my arm and said I was going to jail, I was so shocked I thought he must be joking . . . I didn’t break any laws. I was literally complying with everything they were telling me to do. So I put my hands behind my back. I actually turned my back to him with my hands behind me, and I just kind of assumed the position because I was seeing that as ridiculous as this entire thing was, they were serious. One policeman grabbed my other arm and started pulling me to the left. And while he was pulling me, the one grabbing my arm on the right side started pulling harder, so I am being pulled in both directions.

  Eventually somebody comes from behind, kicking me in my leg, and steps on my leg real hard, breaks my leg, puts me facedown on the ground, and puts me in handcuffs and takes me to the precinct. It was just crazy the way it escalated. The entire response from them was just uncalled-for all around. I understand that there was a lot going on with the stabbing and everything, but I wasn’t a part of that, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and they singled me out.

  To this day, I don’t know exactly why; there could be a racial element to it. I don’t like to call people racist, but there is a racial element in a lot of things in this country.

  Etan: And your teammate . . .

  Sefolosha: Yeah, he is white too. Pero Antić.

  Etan: Right, and just to paint the picture of Pero, and you tell me if this is an exaggeration or not, but he is a big, bald-headed, tattooed, menacing, Sons of Anarchy–looking white guy.

  Sefolosha: Yeah, he’s pretty much like you described.

  Etan: And they said nothing to him the whole time?

  Sefolosha: Not until the end, and then they were looking around like, “Well, what do we do with him? Okay, well, let’s arrest him too.”

  Etan: And they charged you with interfering with an ongoing police investigation, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest, but you were offered a plea deal. Why did you reject it? And did that plea deal involve an admission of guilt?

  Sefolosha: So the deal was exactly that. I would’ve had to do one day of community service, and after six months the charges are completely dropped. So there wasn’t any admission on anybody’s part of any wrongdoing. And that was the part that was completely unacceptable for me, because most people will say, “Oh, he didn’t really want to go to court because somewhere he probably did something wrong and accepted a plea deal of community service.” Also, I thought it was an easy way out for them for them to say, “Okay, you do one day of community service and we’ll act like the whole thing didn’t happen.” Why would I have to do community service? You broke my leg, I didn’t break yours. You violated me. I didn’t violate you. I am supposed to just accept this and say it is okay? There was no way I was going to take that deal.

  Etan: The media coverage was terrible.

  Sefolosha: Yeah, but in the bigger picture, I was lucky. If the police want to do something to you, they have the power to. For me, it was breaking my leg. For other people, they were shot to death. And people will, in most cases, take the side of the police no matter what. Even if they see a video tape, they will say, “Well, maybe there is something we didn’t see before the tape,” or, “Let’s wait until all of the facts come out.” That’s what happens, and people will believe whatever the police report says. And the media won’t give the other side much of a chance to tell their side of the story before they make up their minds . . . Never mind if we are looking at the tape and see that I am in no way resisting anything. If the police say it, then it must be true.

  Etan: That’s just not your personality.

  Sefolosha: People who know me know my personality and my character. But what I was worried about was the people who don’t know me personally. Who only see me on the basketball court. Who will believe anything that the police and the media tell them . . . I couldn’t allow people to think that I actually did the things they were saying I did.

  Etan: So they still don’t want to admit that they did anything wrong, even to this day?

  Sefolosha: No, no admission whatsoever. And that’s the problem . . . There are a lot of things that are wrong with the way they police in America as a whole. They have the authority, they have the power, they have everything on their side . . . If I would have done anything wrong, it would have been all over the news and all over their report and everyone would have said, “Well, he should’ve done this and they wouldn’t have broken his leg,” or, “He should’ve done that and none of this would have happened.” But since I did nothing wrong, they had no choice but to settle. And the DA was trying her hardest to make me look bad and excuse what the police did to me . . . For her, it was just about winning the case for the police. It wasn’t about truth or justice or any of that, just win at all cost. And they just made stuff up. The report early on, before we even got to court, was saying that I punched an officer in the face, and then they had to scratch that because once the video came out, you saw that didn’t happen. And in a case like mine, no officer is going to lose their job or have a serious punishment.

  But what about the people who get killed and they don’t have a lawyer to defend them, or there is no tape, or they are not famous? What happens to those people? How easy is it for the police to get together . . . and say this is what happened, and nobody can do anything about it?

  Etan: What has been the fan response to the police settlement? I know many people were wondering why you settled for four million dollars when you sued for fifty million.

  Sefolosha: Well, it wasn’t necessarily about the money, it was the principle . . . And after the settlement, people started saying, “Okay, well, maybe he didn’t do anything wrong or they wouldn’t have settled. Maybe he wasn’t the one at fault.” I feel like now, a lot of people are looking at me differently and not looking at me like I am a criminal or a bad person.

  Etan: What advice do you have for young people if they have an encounter with the police?

  Sefolosha: The main piece of advice would be to know your rights in your particular state. You can read it on the Internet, you don’t even have to ask you parents or teachers to tell you. You need to know what the police can and cannot do legally . . .

&n
bsp; Etan: I wish I had seen the same uproar in the media when you settled that I did when you were arrested. That bothered me.

  Sefolosha: People want to believe the police, they want to look at them as the good guys, but everyone has to be held accountable . . . So I think that’s the biggest issue—just not holding the police accountable. People’s lives get taken away from them. People get traumatized, PTSD, scarred for life. They actually broke my leg. People have their entire lives changed and nobody is being held accountable, and until they start holding the police accountable, there will unfortunately be more cases of tragedy.

  Chapter 5

  Coaches and Management USING Their Voices Matters

  In 2003, I made the choice to use my voice as a platform to speak out against the invasion of Iraq. I was playing for the Washington Wizards at the time in the nation’s capital, so I was right in the middle of the heart of the activism. I wrote a few different poems and speeches about what was going on and began performing at local poetry spots. As I began performing more and more, I started meeting more like-minded people who would invite me to different rallies and events and demonstrations throughout DC. So I kept performing. Kept writing. Kept speaking out. I was now beginning to get standing ovations for my poems and speeches.

  I really wanted to get my message out. I told the DC newspapers I wanted to write something for them about this topic and was met with a resounding no. John Mitchell of the Washington Times said he would love to print something on the topic, but there was no way that his conservative newspaper would ever be supportive. Steve Wyche at the Washington Post said that while they weren’t anywhere near as conservative as the Times, the chances were pretty much slim to none of them ever running this story. I was thoroughly disappointed. I talked to these guys every day after every practice and every game. They were usually begging for some type of a story or inside scoop or something about the ins and outs of what was going on with the team, but when I had something meaningful to discuss, something that affected our entire country, they didn’t want to touch it?