On Tuesday, the verdict for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was announced as he was found guilty of all three charges he was on trial for in the death of George Floyd in May of 2020. It was seen as a victory for the social justice movement over the summer after the events took place.
The Philadelphia 76ers involved themselves in that movement as Tobias Harris and Matisse Thybulle took their fight to the streets joining in protests and the Sixers organization made a number of commitments to help in the fight for racial equality in the country.
Once the verdict was announced, NBA players from across the league sounded off on the outcome. The Sixers spoke about the verdict as a group, according to veteran Danny Green.
“Doc (Rivers) has lived a good amount of it. He knows what it was like back then, and went through it and he said, which is sad, that if it happened back then, there probably wouldn’t even been a trial, which is crazy, but it’s a win,” Green said. “It’s a big one is huge. I think more so instead of people being excited about it, I think more people feel like, it’s about damn time type of situation.”
Rivers has been outspoken on racial injustices before as he has seen a lot of it in his life, unfortunately. He had some mixed feelings after hearing of the guilty verdict.
“My reaction is a little mixed,” Rivers stated. “The fact that we are celebrating a man who committed murder that he was going to jail, I thought about that, and I’m not so sure if we’ve come a long way, or if we have a long way to go. You can think of that either way, but the right thing happened, obviously, and so I was excited about that.”
It is rare to see a police officer convicted in this manner so the world still has a long way to go, but it is a step in the right direction.
“It’s a move in the right direction, we know we have a lot more to go and a lot of ways to improve on, on our country, but it’s a win,” Green added. “We’ll take it, and it’s a good start since it’s going in the right direction and get in progress, but it just goes to show you how much more we have to go to improve to be better, but it’s a good change.”
“Blacks have been dehumanized for a long time,” Rivers finished. “To see a man go to jail for killing a Black man should not be significant, but it is. I guess in that way, we’re coming a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”
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