Here We Are Again
What can athletes do after another horrific police killing?
Dear readers,
Fair warning: it’s a somber one this week. Thanks — as always — for sticking with us.
-Calder & Ian
On Friday evening at 6:00 p.m ET, about an hour before the Memphis Grizzlies took the court against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis, the Memphis Police Department released footage of five officers beating Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who had been stopped for a traffic violation. The videos — drawn from three of the officers’ body cameras and a nearby security camera — show the officers kicking, punching, pepper spraying, and bludgeoning Nichols, who later died of his injuries. All five officers have been charged with second-degree murder.
In Minneapolis, the terrible redundancy of Nichols’ murder was on full display. The symmetry of the matchup between the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves was almost too poetic to believe: one city, just a few years out from witnessing a brutal police murder of a black man, facing off against another city that had just begun to grapple with a nearly identical murder. The Timberwolves went on to win, 111 to 100.
Of course, the symbolism of the matchup wasn’t poetry at all — it was just an unadorned reflection of our grim reality. Two and a half years after Floyd’s death, police murders of Black men remain a regular feature of life in America. That Nichols’ assailants were all Black does little to change this fact. If you have emerged from the past decade believing that adding more people of color to police forces would solve the problem, you’ve entirely missed the point.
Around the league, players and coaches reacted to the video of the beating with a mix of sadness and exasperation. “Our team understands that our city's hurting,” said Grizzlies’ head coach Taylor Jenkins in a press conference. “The senseless loss of life for Tyre Nichols has really hit us hard.” In a written statement, the NBA Players Association said that they “stand by the rightful arrest of all officers involved,” adding that, “Such aggressive policing and excessive force illustrate the continued need for accountability in the justice system.” On Twitter, Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul wrote, “Change is needed at all levels and we all need to do our part. We can’t lose our humanity as a society.”
What didn’t happen Friday night — and what seems unlikely to happen moving forward — was a widespread work stoppage of the sort that the NBA kicked off in August 2020, following the police murder of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI. Another work stoppage would go a long way toward signaling the players’ seriousness about combating police violence, but it’s hard to begrudge them their decision to take the court this week. Back in 2020, the work stoppage was a dramatic and spontaneous response to a nationwide crisis, and more importantly, it served a clear purpose — namely, forcing the league to put its money where its mouth is. Today, it’s not clear what sort of purpose a strike would serve, beyond providing grist for the right-wing propaganda machine.
How can athletes show real, meaningful solidarity with the victims of police violence in the post-Floyd world? The truth is, we don’t know. Statements of support seem well-intentioned but ultimately weightless. Lobbying efforts by league-sanctioned organizations feel futile. Exhortations to “vote harder” are patently ridiculous. Whatever promise sports leagues held just a few years ago to serve as real drivers of political change has deflated under the dual pressures of run-of-the-mill corporate profit-seeking and bad-faith conservative pressure campaigns.
So, we’re left stuck in the same cycle that we enter into every time some terrible tragedy unfolds in America: from anger to thoughts and prayers to memory-holing the whole event. There are no good answers, but what’s clear to us is that the usual outpouring of grief from athletes isn’t getting us anywhere.
To make any progress, other people have to start listening.
RODNEY’S ROUNDUP
Do you want to read about . . .
. . . a new television show where contestants simply slap each other? “Dana White’s ‘Power Slap’ Is An Abomination” by Patrick Redford in Defector (Jan. 27, 2023).
. . . how an iconic Kansas City football fan ended up in jail, and what followed? “How a Football Superfan in a Wolf Costume Ended Up in a Cage” by Kevin Draper in The New York Times (Jan. 28, 2023).
. . . why a Black interim NFL coach got hung out to dry? “As a Black, interim NFL coach, Steve Wilks never had a fair chance” by John Feldstein in The Washington Post (Jan. 28, 2023)