Milwaukee Bucks wing Sterling Brown has advocated for a return to play, speaking of the platform it could offer players to fight for social change.
As conversation continues around the NBA about the prospect of resuming the season, not just in the midst of a global pandemic, but also at a crucial juncture in the ongoing fight for social justice and an end to racial inequality, a notable Milwaukee Bucks player has weighed in with his say on the subject.
In fact, there are few, if any, current NBA players who are able to relate as personally to the specifics of the kind of police brutality that has led to mass protests across the U.S. and the world over the past month than Bucks wing Sterling Brown.
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Brown, of course, was the victim of a wrongful arrest by Milwaukee Police back in January 2018. The event, which was ultimately made public in the form of police body camera footage, led to Brown being tased, and is now the subject of an ongoing civil rights suit that the player has taken against the City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Police Department.
Therefore, it was no surprise that when the Bucks held their own official protest march just under two weeks ago, it was Brown who led the way among his teammates and thousands of others in attendance.
Speaking to ESPN’s Eric Woodyard on Thursday, Brown weighed in on the debate of whether this is the right moment for the players to return to action, stressing his belief that basketball has given him and many of his peers a voice and a platform with which they have a greater opportunity of influencing and enacting change.
"“A lot of eyes will be on us while we’re in Orlando,” he told ESPN on Thursday. “People can actually see us and see our messages that we can give while we’re playing or at halftime, before a game or whatever. There’s a lot of ways to get out key messages and I feel like I want to take advantage of that. We’ve got a platform like none other. We’ve got resources like none other.“I feel it’s important for me to continue to play to use my platform because my platform has given me a voice and it has allowed people to follow me and see me and it’s allowed people to become more passionate with the movement that’s going on.”"
Brown stressed that he believes the players who are currently opposing the idea of restarting the season over their concerns of the NBA acting as a distraction to the bigger issues at hand are doing so for “a good reason”.
But with his personal experience, Brown has directly lived through and been able to observe the impact that his platform as an NBA player has lent to his fight.
"“It’s allowed my case to bring light to the injustices and everything that’s going on in the city of Milwaukee and their police department. So, the platform that we have is powerful and it does bring recognition and it does change mindsets and it does get dialogue going and it gets people aware and it gets people fired up. It gets them ready to make something happen to get change with injustice and equality and all of the above for our community.”"
The prospect of an NBA return undoubtedly remains complicated, but Brown has a level of insight to offer at this time that means, both within the Bucks and the wider NBA, his voice should be heard even louder than many of his higher profile peers.