Adam Silver wants his players to do more than just play basketball.
The NBA is hopeful to return July 30 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. And while players like Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard don’t agree with the return due to the events going on in the world, the commissioner hopes the players in the league will use the return as a platform.
The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd have sparked protests across the globe. And Silver doesn’t want the return of the NBA to take away the work some players have done to make their voices heard during this time.
In fact, he wants them to use their platform as a way to continue to raise awareness.
“For us, we feel this is what we do,” Silver told Mike Greenberg on Monday during ESPN’s “The Return of Sports” special. “We put on NBA basketball. I think that for the country it will be a respite from enormous difficulties people are dealing with in their lives right now. And I also think in terms of social justice issues, it’ll be an opportunity for NBA players and the greater community to draw attention to these issues because the world’s attention will be on the NBA … if we’re able to pull this off.”
Perfectly said.
