On Friday, the NBA and the National Basketball Player’s Association released a joint statement indicating both the return of the playoffs inside the bubble on Saturday and the institution of a number of actions agreed upon by the players and owners.
The press release included a trio of commitments for the owners but perhaps none was bigger, literally and metaphorically, than each arena becoming a voting center for future elections.
“In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID. If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.”
The move is a huge commitment for each franchise and city and came as a direct result of the players refusing to play games starting on Wednesday. Presently, the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets and Utah Jazz all have their arenas as voting centers.
The Los Angeles Clippers announced on Friday that The Forum would be used as a voting center. LeBron James’ More Than A Vote non-profit worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers to turn Dodgers Stadium into a voting center earlier this month.
The New Orleans Pelicans, though, remained quiet on Friday. To be fair, there could be a variety of reasons that the franchise couldn’t make an announcement yet. The process of turning the Smoothie King Center into a voting center would likely not be a quick one and Friday may have simply been the start. There are plenty of hoops that would need to be jumped through to finalize that move.
However, the silence from the Pelicans isn’t limited to just Friday.
On June 1, Pelicans and Saints owner Gayle Benson announced the creation of the Social Justice Leadership Coalition, comprising of Pelicans Lonzo Ball and JJ Redick and Saint Demario Davis. The announcement came with the following explanation from Benson:
“…I am proud to announce that these three players will join me in a newly created Social Justice Leadership Coalition, within our organization. I welcome any of our other players to join as well. Our goal will be to advocate for issues of change when and where we are able to in black and brown communities. Hopefully our work will be a model for others. They will have my full support.”
Since the coalition’s creation, nothing of substance has come about. There could be worthwhile explanations for the lack of news about the coalition. Weeks after the formation, which came during a worldwide pandemic, Redick and Ball returned to New Orleans before heading to Orlando to take part in the league’s restart. Davis was in the middle of the off-season and involved in his own activism.
But Wednesday’s actions by the NBA of striking and not taking the court brought the matter of social justice into the forefront and leads to the question of where has the Social Justice Leadership Coalition been?
Friday’s news of franchises and owners committing to turning arenas into voting centers seems like a perfect time to have this coalition put into action. And that should only be the start of more activism through the coalition. Given the wildness of the world in 2020, it’s easy and fair to write off the coalition’s inaction to-date.
Otherwise, it would appear the creation of the coalition was largely a public relations move that was little more than lip service.