Russell Westbrook On Recent Shootings: ‘Something Has to Change’

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2016-17 NBA season is whether players will follow the lead of NFL players and protest the National Anthem before games. Players from around the League have been vocal on social media about the recent shootings of unarmed Black men at the hands of police officers, and now that team media days are upon us, players are being asked about the tragic events.

At yesterday’s Thunder media day, Westbrook was asked about the death of Terence Crutcher and Westbrook’s Instagram response and said that it’s important for him to take a stand and that “something has to change.”

From the Associated Press

“Me growing up in the inner city and being able to see different things on a night in and day in, day out basis – it hit home for me, just being able to see the different things that’s going on globally, and giving people across the world an opportunity to see it,” Westbrook said at Thunder media day on Friday. “Now, it’s getting to a point that there’s something that needs to be changed in that aspect. I’m going to use my voice as much as possible to relay that aspect.”

 

“Me, being an African American athlete and having a voice, I think it’s important that it’s important that I make a stand that something has to change,” he said. “I think that — obviously, I don’t have an answer. Nobody has an answer. If that was the case, we would have fixed it. But it’s important that we try to figure out what we can do to help improve the things that’s going on.”

Earlier this week, the NBA released a letter to its players saying that the League is going to “take meaningful” action in communities and plans to link up with the NBPA to “engage young people, parents, community leaders and law enforcement in candid dialogue.”

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