We Matter

by Etan Thomas

  So, for example, one of the many things we have done since is we held a conversation here in Indianapolis—we had sixty-four youths that represented thirty different schools, we had twenty police officers, we had forty community leaders, and we discussed some of the issues that are happening in society. But more importantly, we discussed how we in our small group can bring about change here in Indianapolis. And we came up with solutions and plans in association with the police and the community activists and the youth. That’s where my mission goes. I’m not kneeling just to kneel. I’m kneeling to start change, but realizing that the change has to also start with me too.

  Etan: How important was it for the world to see all of the white players kneeling together in support of the Black players? For me, it was very important—like your coach said, it was bigger than basketball.

  Catchings: You just hit it on the head. It showed the united part: “While I may not have to go through exactly what you are going through, I understand the need to proclaim to the world as a white person that yes, Black lives do matter, and I want to be a part of this change and do my part as a white person . . . I am going to join my Black sisters and do my part to create change. When we are talking about the Black Lives Matter shirts and blackout media protests earlier in the season as a league, one of the things that kept coming up was: “Be the change, change needs to happen, change starts with us.” And it was awesome because when we were having this conversation . . . it was literally all of the players putting their voices in . . . So you saw all the teams who had many non-Black players, international players, and we did it together as a league. And when you have strong women who are all willing to stand for a cause that they believe in . . . we can’t be pushed over and we want to be a part of that change.

  I look at myself, and as a young girl, I was trying to find my own identity. And trying to figure out where they fit in—that’s where our young girls are now . . . It’s important for young girls to be told that this can be you, and the power and self-confidence and self-assuredness that you see us possess, this can also be you. It’s inside of you, but you just have to be able to nurture it in the midst of a society that tells you the opposite and that your life doesn’t matter. Every opportunity where we can . . . shower them with love, and show them positive examples of what a true woman looks like, and how we carry ourselves, and what we represent in this world. We are the majority. There are more women in this world than there are men. And we have to constantly show them how beautiful and special they are.

  Etan: Sometimes in the conversations about police brutality and Black Lives Matter and murders by the police, women are left out of the conversation. There also need to be more panels and other public forums directed at young women.

  Catchings: We definitely should, and it is unfortunate, and now we go to a whole ’nother thing, because we talk about Black Lives Matter, and we talk about Black people, and being a minority, and always being put to the side, so now you get to a whole ’nother element within the Black community and within the world, where women are still looked at as second-class citizens. I feel like in every single thing, women are pushed to the side . . . You get to the topics of the killings and you hear, “Oh, well, she is probably at the wrong place at the wrong time,” or, “Her attitude wasn’t what it should have been,” which was an actual justification in the murders of both Sandra Bland and Korryn Gaines. Their attitude? That’s like, “She got raped because of the outfit that she was wearing.” So we as a society have to look at the misogyny that goes on in every single aspect, whether we are talking about the workforce, or professional sports, men and women being killed. That is a definite issue that needs to be brought to life.

  Chapter 7

  Ignoring Critics and Haters Matters

  After the racist comments by NBA CEO Donald Sterling became public, many throughout the media world and on various social networks took the Clippers players to task for what they called an “inadequate gesture” and “meaningless response.” Vicious and uninformed attacks began to flood the Internet questioning the players’ character, heart, overall commitment, and connection to their community, their race, and their history. Disparaging views about the players began popping up like dandelions in an open field.

  Once again, the entire illustrious roster of Black athletes was being painted with a broad brush of ridicule.

  The players handled the entire situation very intelligently. They were strategic in their demands and patient in their responses. This was a game of chess—it wasn’t checkers. Unfortunately, many critics simply didn’t understand that. It’s always interesting when the Monday-morning quarterbacks discuss what they would do if they were in a certain situation.

  What so many people were unaware of was that after Sterling’s comments became exposed to the public, the Players Association—in particular the organization’s president and Clippers player Chris Paul—decided to appoint Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson to speak on their behalf since they were still in the process of finding a new executive director.

  According to Mayor Johnson, they decided to have him meet with Commissioner Adam Silver to not only voice their disgust but to make a very clear demand: that Sterling receive the maximum possible punishment allowed under the bylaws and that this matter be handled swiftly. Commissioner Silver assured them that he was just as disgusted and appalled but asked the players to give him a few days for what he called “due process.” It was wise for the Players Association to give the newly appointed commissioner a chance to make his decision while strategically preparing their next move—in the event that a proper punishment was not handed down.

  Meanwhile, the Clippers had a game to play, and decided to wage a silent protest, refusing to publicly speak about the issue. They ran out of the tunnel wearing their usual warm-ups, then huddled together at midcourt and tossed the outer layer of their warm-ups to the ground, revealing that the team had turned their red practice jerseys inside out.

  This was met with public ridicule, as if the players had done something wrong. Many people said that they should have instead boycotted, held a sit-in, marched, rallied, or set a life-size cardboard image of Sterling on fire and circled around it while it went up in flames. You heard every suggestion under the sun.

  Then, three days after the racist recordings of Sterling were made public, Adam Silver handed down the harshest punishment allowed—exactly what the players had demanded. Players Association vice president Roger Mason Jr. told ESPN that he spoke to player representatives from each team and they had all been on board with a decision to boycott that Tuesday’s games if they weren’t satisfied with the commissioner’s decision.

  Frederick Douglass once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Many of the players were aware of this.

  Interview with Jamal Crawford

  I played for a year in Atlanta with Jamal Crawford, who was a member of that Clippers team, and I developed a friendship with him. I wanted him to walk me through the process of everything that happened, including how hearing the criticism affected him and his family from a personal standpoint. I am so pleased that he agreed to go on record with this.

  Etan: Take me back to 2014. The Donald Sterling incident happens and the entire Clippers team collectively decides to make a statement . . .

  Jamal Crawford: We never really saw him but we always heard that he was kind of different . . . So when recorded tapes leaked out and we heard the things he was saying about Black people as a whole . . . a bunch of emotions started pouring in throughout the entire team. We couldn’t even sleep. We were in the middle of a playoff battle against Golden State at the time, and we had no manual on how to handle this situation. If you want to be a better shooter, you get up more shots. If you want to be a better ball handler, you go through cone drills. There was no guide or pamphlet to say, Hey, this is what you do in this type of a situation.

  Then you get calls from everyone you know or have known, and e
veryone has opinions . . . And we had to make a collective decision. We are a team, we’re not an individual sport. Some guys wanted to do one thing and some guys wanted to handle it other ways. We had a lot of different opinions within our team of how to handle this situation. We met, everyone had the opportunity to voice their opinions . . . but whatever we were going to do, we emphasized that we were going to do it as a team. We didn’t want anyone going by themselves and taking heat or criticism or taking it all on their shoulders. We wanted to take our stance as a team.

  One of the best handles in the league, Jamal Crawford didn't hesitate to speak about the ousting of Donald Sterling.

  Etan: How were the coaches and management during this process?

  Crawford: The way we saw it, we weren’t playing for Donald Sterling. It was about us, the brotherhood . . . Doc [Coach Doc Rivers] was very open and very supportive. He just kept emphasizing that whatever we do, we are going to do it as a unit . . . He told us that he was affected by this just as we were all affected by this . . . Not to sound cliché, but this entire thing brought us all even closer as a team because we were all in it together.

  Etan: That’s what prompted me to write an article for Huffington Post in May 2014 called “The Clippers Players Were Far from Cowards in Handling the Donald Sterling Situation.” But isn’t it interesting that so many people were doing so much criticizing afterward? What type of criticisms did you hear?

  Crawford: Oh, we heard it all: “You guys are all cowards,” like you said in your article, and thanks so much for writing that . . . But we heard, “You guys didn’t stand for anything, you should have done it like this; the athletes of the sixties would’ve done this or that; this is your moment,” etc. We heard it all. Sometimes you will be criticized either way. I am reminded of how tough everything was at that time because people thought they knew what was going on, but they really didn’t. We went through a whole team process and came up with the most effective strategy in order to get the results we all wanted, which was to have him removed, and we did just that.

  Etan: How did this entire ordeal effect y’all on the court? You struggled a little bit against Golden State that next game after everything came out.

  Crawford: Struggled a little? We got blown out the next game . . . Our minds were not there. That’s how heavily everything was weighing on us. We had made the decision to give Adam Silver his time to do his investigating and due diligence and go through the process . . . but we were fully prepared to take a different course if needed, and we expressed this to him . . . But kudos to Golden State. They told us, “If you don’t want to play, we won’t play, and we’ll sit out with you.” So that was really cool of them to have our backs like that and they talked about it publicly. I’m just glad our strategy worked out the way that it did, and he is no longer a part of the organization.

  Etan: Isn’t it interesting that some of the same people who criticize current players and say they are nothing like the players from the sixties . . . they still criticize, even when the players take action?

  Crawford: It’s definitely a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation, but you can’t go into it thinking that you can please everybody . . . You’ll always have people who criticize. Think about the job that President Barack Obama did for eight years in the White House, especially with what he walked into and the mess that was left by the president before him. And people never stopped criticizing him—even to this day, they are still criticizing him. So at the end of the day, we just had to do what was best for us in this situation to get the results that we wanted and not even think about trying to please everyone.

  Interview with Dr. John Carlos

  Right before I wrote the article for Huffington Post defending the Clippers players, I made a Facebook post that in effect read: “Attention all reporters: please refrain from inviting me onto your shows to bash my fellow players. It’s not going to happen, so please stop trying.”

  In July 2015, I joined Dr. John Carlos and Adonal Foyle on a panel in Los Angeles for the Special Olympics. Once again, the discussion turned to the issue of athletes today, with Adonal and I defending them, while the moderator, Alan Kasujja, was hell-bent on casting a dark shadow over them.

  Della Britton Baeza, president and CEO of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, echoed Kasujja’s sentiments, and instead of simply giving honor and respect to Jackie Robinson, she took the opportunity to bash ALL current athletes. She proclaimed that modern-day athletes were not only failing to carry the torch set forth by Robinson, but that in general they outright refused to be proactive in using their influence and reputations to bring about social justice.

  I was so relieved that Dr. John Carlos didn’t share those sentiments, although they relentlessly attempted to get him to support what they were saying. He simply would not do it.

  I sat down with Dr. Carlos to discuss social activism and athletes today. I wanted to speak with someone who I have admired and respected from the first time my mother taught me about him in middle school. Someone whose poster I’ve had on my wall in high school, college, and even now in my office at home.

  With the great Dr. John Carlos. He is pointing to my T-shirt of Malcolm doing the Black Power salute. He really got a kick out of it.

  Etan: When you look at Kaepernick and LeBron and Carmelo and the current athletes, do you feel that they are carrying on the tradition of you and Tommie Smith and Kareem and Bill Russell and all of the great athletes who used their positions as a platform to create change?

  Dr. John Carlos: Yes, I definitely do, but let me say this: activism started a long time before the individuals that you just mentioned . . . We were not the originators, and I always want to make that point. We have to recognize athletes that I looked up to and that inspired me, like Jack Johnson, Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens. They are the athletes who laid the foundation for Peter Norman, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos to be able to take the stand we took during the 1968 Olympics. We’re nowhere near the first. And those individuals, Kaepernick, LeBron, Carmelo, they are the fruit of our labor, but these bread crumbs were laid way before us. In our time we were able to take a stand on a tremendous stage for the world to see, and I love seeing young brothers like yourself who have always been aware and active and passionate . . . We are proud of the work you young brothers are doing and for us to be able to be involved in what you are doing.

  It’s one thing for me to read about what Jack Johnson did and admire and be inspired by what I am reading, but it’s another thing for us to be able to interact with the current athletes and have you all pick our brains . . . We are now fighting this fight together and that’s what it’s all about. And these people who say that athletes only care about getting the big check and not worry about their community, that’s not what I see . . . I see current athletes engaged, interested, knowledgeable about the history of athletes that came before them, studying and being aware, and they are bothered by the injustices toward their race . . .

  Etan: How do you respond when people ask why you are “different” from other athletes who don’t speak out?

  Carlos: People like to talk a good game, but I don’t see them speaking out at their place of employment, and they want to criticize athletes for having the same reservation that they have. You can’t expect everyone in athletics to lead the same charge. Some people are wiser earlier and some people it takes a little longer for them. Some people it’s just not their thing, and that’s okay too . . . But the bottom line is, it builds courage when you see more individuals start to speak out and stand up, so then you see young superstars who were inspired by the courage that they saw and they come into the game with a totally different mind state.

  Etan: It has to make you smile when you see a player from this generation like Kaepernick say your name.

  Carlos: I’m always smiling to the point that my cheeks hurt when I see individuals have the courage to take on the world like Kaepernick did to take this stance . . . Of course that ma
kes me smile. Makes me jump up and down and high-five my sons too, which is exactly what we did. That’s a tremendously hard load to carry and put on your shoulders . . . It makes me think about Hercules, because that’s the level of strength that you have to have. That makes me do nothing but smile.

  Etan: You mention that it’s worth remembering that not everyone spoke out.

  Carlos: I don’t remember what year it was but I was excited to meet Dr. King and I asked him a question. I said, “Why would you go back to Memphis if they threatened your life?” And he said, “John, I had to go back and stand for those that can’t stand for themselves.” So in essence what I’m saying is, there are now and were then athletes who may not have been saying anything for different reasons or doing anything for different reasons, but that doesn’t mean they don’t and didn’t want the same justice and equality that I did. So I have to speak for them. And when I speak . . . they are encouraged by what I did—so encouraged that one day they may step out and speak out against the atrocities that people have to endure every day. All we are doing is lighting a fire under them.

  Etan: What would be your advice to young athletes who want to speak out?

  Carlos: You have to realize we as a people have always been criticized . . . But the question is, will you be defeated by this criticism or stand up against it? Three hundred and fifty years ago we were in bondage in slavery—that’s the ultimate form of criticism. That says, “Don’t even look at us as human beings.” And just as we didn’t fall to the criticism then, we can’t fall to the criticism now . . . Was Trump concerned with criticism when he saying the things he was saying throughout the entire election process? . . . If he wasn’t concerned, why would you be concerned with criticism, and you know you are going the right way? It’s crucial for today’s individuals to weigh these things in their minds.