Boston’s Jaylen Brown thinks we’ll appreciate Bucks protest in time

Boston’s Jaylen Brown believes we’ll look back on the Milwaukee Bucks’ ‘boycott’ with greater appreciation in hindsight.

There is a tendency in sports and other news media to focus on the negative.

Conflict, consternation, and disagreement all tend to attract more eyes than a story on positive outcomes, and that’s a fact Boston Celtic star shooting guard Jaylen Brown was quick to note when asked his thoughts on the protest sparked by the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.

In the place of stories covering their bravery or their risk, many of the top stories coming out soon after the Bucks refused to exit the locker room to play Game 5 of their series against the Orlando Magic.

Instead, they focused on players reportedly being irked about not being informed about Milwaukee’s (spontaneous) plans.

Some trained their attention on LeBron James walking out of the impromptu meeting that shaped up later in anger.

Others still (this outlet included) lauded Brown for his role in defending the Bucks, instead of focusing more on the tangible good that came from Milwaukee’s action.

“Well, it was supposed to be a private meeting, and I’ve seen some of the headlines,” began Brown as he spoke to the media for the first time since the stoppage.

“I think it’s an emphasis on the divisiveness of what took place in a lot of those meetings, but what’s not being talked about is the unification that was being shown,” he noted.

“It was a lot of guys in the room that had a lot of pain.”

“We all saw the recent videos and we’ve all seen the videos over the years, and frankly, we feel helpless and we feel tired. I was proud to see a lot of guys come in here and share emotions and have real conversation in the room; instead I felt like people are focused on the divisiveness of the conversations. But, to be honest, getting all those guys in the same room to talk about one thing, that was important and the NBA pulled out all the stops, to be honest — put Black Lives Matter on the court. We’ve done all the PSA announcements or video clips that we could possibly do.”

“We came down here to use our platform, and that’s exactly what Milwaukee did, and we all saw its effect,” Brown added.

“We all saw the awareness that was raised.”

The National Basketball Players Association Vice President has indeed been taking a significant role in the conversations which arose from the work stoppage on Wednesday.

And in the issues which brought it to the fore.

To the Cal-Berkeley product, while the emotional impacts of shootings like Jacob Blake necessitated the Bucks’ response, it also isn’t necessary cause to shut everything down, either.

“To be honest, I think in hindsight, we will appreciate what Milwaukee did. There’s a lot of guys that came down here for reasons other than basketball, and to use our platforms and Milwaukee did exactly that. And, if necessary, it could be done again.”

Hopefully that won’t be the case,” he qualified, “but using our platform is what a lot of guys came down for.”

And while Brown does think it important to maximize that platform through playing, that doesn’t mean he wants to downplay the Blake shooting so it ca happen — quite the opposite.

“I feel like there is an interest in the criminalization of African Americans or Black people in this country,” he explained.

“Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times, and he’s handcuffed to a bed right now as a reminder. It’s a reminder to the nurses, it’s a reminder to his family, to the staff as being paralyzed wasn’t a reminder enough. And it doesn’t make sense, to be honest. It doesn’t make sense — the criminalization of black people is an example with those handcuffs of Jacob Blake being strapped to that bed, as if being paralyzed was not enough of a reminder.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” he reiterated.

If another incident like this one were to occur and upset the delicate balance enabling the 2020 NBA Playoffs to continue, it’s hard not seeing Brown’s prediction that a protest (or boycott or strike) could indeed be deployed again.

It would be hard to see another outcome, all things being what they have been.

Whether or not the platform itself could survive the most recent agreement between the players, NBA and team Governors will hopefully not be tested.

But judging by the ubiquity and frequency of the problem under consideration, it well may.

[lawrence-related id=41232,41227,41224,41218]