TORONTO – DeMar DeRozan has been paying close attention to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s kneel-down protest during the U.S. national anthem and other athletes speaking out against police brutality of African-Americans and other persons of colour.
Now it seems he’s prepared to do his own part to stand against social injustice.
“We all as individuals on the team have been through different things in our lives,” the Toronto Raptors all-star guard said Monday morning as part of the team’s official pre-season media day.
“I had a close friend of mine, a couple of weeks ago, that was murdered by the police— shot 17 times,” he continued. “It was something that I hadn’t spoken out about.”
When asked what he plans to do specifically, DeRozan didn’t comment, but whatever action he takes he doesn’t plan to do it alone. The Raptors, as an organization, have discussed amongst themselves about what’s happening in the world today and are being encouraged to keep that dialogue going.
“We’ve talked about [a potential anthem protest],” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “It’s going to be an ongoing conversation… I came from segregation, I know what it looks like. I know what people are upset about, I understand it. The league has done an excellent job of working with the Players’ Association, and I think that our job as leaders here is to have a conversation about it. It’s a slippery slope to say what to say not to say. You can’t do that, it’s not something you can dictate. …
“All I tell our guys is to be informed, do it from the heart, don’t say something just for the sake of saying something. The young man from San Francisco put his money where his mouth is, but it’s something that will be an ongoing conversation and that’s what it should be about. It’s bringing awareness to the situation and what’s going on.”
Team president Masai Ujiri weighed in on Monday as well.
“I think Adam Silver, the commissioner, has done a great job partnering up with the Players’ Association in addressing this [protest] and I think one of the things with the NBA I’m really proud of is we get ahead of this [kind of thing],” he said. “We all have the right to speak our minds and we’ve discussed with our players. I know coach has taken a good lead and talked to some of our players on some of these social matters and social issues, and the need for some social change. …
“I don’t know if kneeling down for an anthem is the answer. To me, if you’re going to do that, then you better have a backbone and you better go out into your community, and you better be doing something that affects social change before you can do that. I commend guys that have done it and have paid attention to it. I think our players will continue to discuss it and go from there.”
As Casey and Ujiri said, the NBA has also been proactive on the matter, partnering with the NBPA asking its players for ideas on social change.
DeRozan maintained that non-violence and peaceful protest is the best route.
“In a sense it’s chaotic because you want change to happen so quick,” he said. “So much is going on it at once and you want change to happen. At the same time it doesn’t necessarily work like that. It takes time. It’s not going to be a day, it’s not going to be a week, it’s not going to be a month, but it can start with each individual and that can speed up the process— however long that may be.
“It’s more so to just understand what’s going on and using your mind and not so much anger or aggression towards certain things because that may not be the solution, and really helping people understand that part and working towards whatever needs to be figured out.”
DeRozan’s fellow all-star backcourt mate Kyle Lowry echoed his answer to the issue.
“I think now we have to use our voices,” Lowry said. “Everybody can do their own thing. For me, I think using my voice would be the best way. Using my voice, using my platform to get out there, to find a way to come to some peaceful solution and just keep the conversation going, and try to help everything.”
While it’s still uncertain what kind of demonstration the Raptors plan to do, it’s clear that what’s happening in the United States isn’t acceptable to many on the team, and they will try their best to educate themselves and others on what’s really important.
“Not everybody grew up in Compton,” DeRozan said, “so their point of view on something may be different from ours. [We’re] having that dialogue and getting everybody together and understanding how can we help to be beneficial to the outside world.”