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The NBA is resuming the 2019-20 season in the midst of not only a global pandemic, but also in the middle of a huge Civil Rights movement. So, in order to give the players a voice, they are allowing them to have social justice messages on the back of their jerseys rather than their last names.
The Sixers will have six players have jersey messages on the back of their jerseys in the Orlando restart. Two of them are Josh Richardson and Matisse Thybulle who revealed and explained their social justice messages.
“I chose ‘say their names’ just because there’s so many instances things that have happened and I’m just trying to be a vessel for this movement that’s finally happening,” said Richardson. “You can go down the list, Breonna Taylor is at the forefront, George Floyd, Michael Brown, on a smaller scale, where I’m from Isaiah Lewis was killed by police unarmed and there’s just too many instances of it happening so I’m just trying to raise awareness, keep being a vessel for what’s happening and hopefully people will keep picking up on the message.”
The ongoing inactivity involving Taylor has been something that has been bothering the Sixers and the NBA for a while. Tobias Harris and Mike Scott continue to use their platforms to spread the message for justice in her case. Richardson is now trying to do the same with his jersey message.
In the case of Thybulle, he wants people to use their voice any chance they can and vote. Some people don’t have the type of opportunity that people in America do have.
He explained:
My dad was born and raised in Haiti and as he grew up there, they had a dictator. That’s something that not a lot of people in the U.S. are very sware of or understand the reality of. To be raised with that perspective and to understand and appreciate what it means to have a vote and be part of a democracy where your opinion matters, it’s taken for granted, I think a lot. It’s something that I’m passionate about, my family’s passionate about, and I think a lot of other players are as well and just trying to educate people in an area that goes back to being a kid. Like the only education I had of voting was ‘Schoolhouse Rock!’. I still remember those songs. It’s not something that’s spoken about enough and this platform is huge for us to have the ability to bring light back to it and hopefully we can get as many as eyes and ears to see and listen and make some change.
Coach Brett Brown continues to be in support of his players and that will be the same in this situation as he and the team will have ongoing discussions of how to spread their messages. He will also call on the late great John Lewis who was a Civil Rights icon.
“This whole racial injustice discussion and incredibly powerful, real, sad examples that lead us to this topic, we talk about all the time,” Brown added. “In a moment, we’re going to talk about John Lewis and the article that came out today in the New York Times and we’re going to talk about the messaging. There are things internally that we’ll talk about that will remain private until we feel we have a solid plan to share with the marketplace. We’ve been exploring our role and what we can do and make an impact especially as it relates to the city of Philadelphia.”
Their first game–Saturday against the Indiana Pacers–will be their chance to spread the word. [lawrence-related id=35811,35786,35795]