The NBA’s players have collectively decided to take a stand and shed light on the social justice and inequality issues that run rampant in America β particularly when it comes to police brutality and the mistreatment of Black people.
They’re doing it in a number of ways. That includes things like donating money and salaries to charity and speaking the names of police brutality victims in press conferences where they’d typically talk about basketball.
One of the other ways players decided to shine light on these issues was to put social justice statements on the back of their jerseys where their names would typically be.
When the Pelicans play the first official regular season game of the NBA’s return tonight, those statements will be unveiled on the court for the first time.
The Pelicans gave a sneak peak of the jerseys with the statements on them ahead of the game.
Some of the squadβs messages to be worn on the back of their jerseys β€΅οΈ pic.twitter.com/ZCbdz7PGrE
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 30, 2020
They weren’t the only ones to share, either. The Suns shared theirs ahead of the league’s official return game as well (though they still include player names on them).
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ love
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ hope
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ peace
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ change
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ diversity
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ solidarity
π²π πππΆππΉ π»ππ acceptance pic.twitter.com/9tuoEyFFJl— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) July 30, 2020
The Celtics even shared a peek at theirs.
Freedomβ£.
Love Us.
Enough.
Black Lives Matter. pic.twitter.com/3ULhri9fxt— Boston Celtics (@celtics) July 29, 2020
As more games are played more of these will continue to trickle in.
It’s worth noting that these aren’t necessarily handpicked messages from players β the league gave them a pool of statements to choose from to put on the back of their jerseys.
In any event, though, it’s a good thing to see the NBA doing this. Especially when it wasn’t even a though just a month or two ago.