Friday, March 23rd, 2012 at 7:45 pm  |  71 responses

NBA Players Association Releases Statement on Trayvon Martin Killing


We’ve already seen LeBron James, teammate Dwyane Wade and the rest of the Miami Heat show support for the family of the slain teenager Trayvon Martin. And now, the NBA Players Association takes the unexpected step of releasing a statement about the killing: ”The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) offers its condolences to the family and loved ones of Trayvon Martin in their time of need. The NBPA is saddened and horrified by the tragic murder of Mr. Martin and joins in the chorus of calls from across the nation for the prompt arrest of George Zimmerman. The reported facts surrounding Mr. Zimmerman’s actions indicate a callous disregard for Mr. Martin’s young life and necessitate that he stand trial. The NBPA also calls for the permanent resignation of Sanford Chief of Police Bill Lee and a full review of the Sanford Police Department, for dereliction of duty and racial bias in this matter and others. Their silence in the face of this injustice is reprehensible and they cannot be trusted to safe guard the citizens of the Sanford community equally. The NBPA seeks to ensure that Trayvon Martin’s murder not go unpunished and the elimination of the injustices suffered by the innocent.”

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  • http://www.slamonline.com TADOne

    And yes, kudos to the Players Assoc for this press release as well.

  • abaci

    R.I.P. Trayvon Martin. Some of you should be ashamed by the ignorant hate filled rhetoric you are spewing. Wake up people.

  • shutup

    @robb so we should all act like guns dont exist, that violence isnt an everyday occurrence? My point about the car is that more people die at the hands of a car then they do at the hands of a gun, should the government restrict our rights to use them? So its not ok to stereotype someone on race but to say all gun users are criminals and are going to kill someone is ok? Do you know what happens when a government bans guns? Only criminals will have guns. You think the gun was the issue in this case? your sadly mistaken. Whats next your gonna ban knives and fire? Then rope and bats? Then at birth we should cut off our hands. Now if you want to argue guns should have never been invented….good luck with that.

  • MikeC.

    @shutup – gun control is almost impossible to enforce. Like you mentioned, criminals don’t usually use a legally registered gun. We tried using major gun restrictions in Canada and it just brought more illegal guns into the country.

  • MeRcMoBb26

    I come to this site on a daily basis, but never comment. I usually just get a kick out of the comments being made, and also to gain some good bball info from the articles and well informed commentors. That being said, situations like this bring out the worst in some people. As a black man, and full time father of three sons (one of them being a teen) of course I’m outraged by the events that happened in Sanford. However, you don’t fight ignorance with ignorance. Regardless of young Trayvon’s race, this was someone’s child taken away far too soon. I’m appalled at how the “law” is handling this, but thinking that the judicial system in America is not biased is just as ignorant as some of these comments. Thank you James aka and Ashley for making well thought out comments, and kudos to the Heat/player’s association. I’m glad that they are using this platform to say something. More often than not, the player’s in the late 80s/90s never stood up for anything, and would’ve been in hush mode. Most of these guys are fathers, people, they can speak about more things than what’s said in a post game interview. R.I.P. Trayvon. Rest in paradise.

  • shutup

    @Mike my point exactly, people don’t realize that regulations only regulate those willing to be regulated. People that want to live outside of the rules of society are going to do it regardless.

  • http://www.tampax.com Crusher

    Yeah, race is a huge factor because Mexican on Black crime is a huge problem in America right now.

  • http://www.tampax.com Bizness

    Am I the only one who has considered that the kid was attacking Zimmerman? Zimmerman was cut badly and bruised front and back of his head and can be heard clearly screaming for help in the 911 call. Regardless of how tragic and wrong the situation is, its not like Zimmerman was out hunting for black kids with his glock for sport. He had been patrolling for years without incident. It doesn’t matter if he was provoking the kid or not. If the kid took a swing first, then Zimmerman shot in self-defense. It doesn’t make him right, but it does make him just a flawed guy who shot in self-defense, not the racis t boogeyman he’s being made out to be. Check the facts yourself. As usual, the media jumps and you say ‘how high?’

  • http://www.oprah.com Obamabot

    Ridiculous to see how Zimmerman has been tried and convicted. I teach constitutional law, just like Obama did, and I can tell you that he broke a few laws with his speech today and that he knew exactly what he was doing. He defended Trayvon but didn’t speak for Zimmerman, yet both guys are equal in the eyes of the law as of today. When the President of the United States deliberately prejudices every jury in the country with emotion-based language it means he has something to gain.

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    moderator anybody???

  • Golakeshow

    WTF James aka

  • James aka…

    And cars require licenses. Whats you’re point?

  • James aka…

    Mike C. for the loss. The registry wasn’t killed because it “brought more guns in to Canada”, which there is less than 0 evidence to support, it was killed because gun owners complained about the registry, and the cost was seen as exorbitant.

  • MikeC.

    @James – I wasn’t talking about reasons why the legislation failed as a whole, just one of the unfortunate results. Public support was minimal because of the enormous cost and the typical bureaucratic bumbling. As far as it bringing more guns into Canada, I don’t have first hand knowledge of that, just what I’ve seen and read in the news media.

  • shutup

    Cars require licenses, has any ever thought of banning them to prevent deaths? Guns require licenses too. That’s my point; and its a fact that the crime rate increased in Canada after the ban was implemented, homicides increased significantly. Violent crimes rose across the board which include car jackings, home invasions, r@pe, assaults and stabbings. The same can be said after England implemented the same kind of ban on firearms. Again i’m not against registration of guns, but I am completely against banning them.

  • shutup

    Cars require licenses, has any ever thought of banning them to prevent deaths? Guns require licenses too. That’s my point; and its a fact that the crime rate increased in Canada after the ban was implemented, homicides increased significantly. Violent crimes rose across the board which include car jackings, home invasions, r @ p e, assaults and stabbings. The same can be said after England implemented the same kind of ban on firearms. Again i’m not against registration of guns, but I am completely against banning them.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    Alot of racism to fight against racism here people…Trayvon’s death is a huge huge tragedy, nobody is debating that. Most aren’t justifying Zimmerman’s actions (some morons are), but when one side of the story is presented, people are automatically jumping to the oposite extreme in defense of thier position. Zimmerman isn’t a great dude, and he made terrible decisions that night. Based on his history and his phone call to the police, he has a problem with black people. That’s sad. He shouldn’t have been stalking Trayvon in the first place. He should have been arested that night based on the fact that he shot someone (regardless of motive). Since when is it good police work to just believe the person who shot someone instead of aresting him and investigating further? All that being said though, MOST people who are saying anything about this story only know what the mainstream media is saying about it. They don’t know all the facts and they’re jumping to some big conclusions. The mainstream media is doing thier thing and sensationalizing the hell out of it because it’ll boost thier ratings, when the fact is that unnarmed people die at the hands of criminals on a daily basis. Women and children are beaten and killed on a daily basis. People get away with agregious crimes on a daily basis.

  • James Aka…

    There is no gun ban in canada shutup, you’re just making up (or more likely copying made up) information about gun laws in canada. The crime rate has not gone up in canada over any point in the last 20 years, so again, you’re making things up. The only thing that has changed in 20 years is the proportion of homicides with guns versus stabbings and beatings leading to death. Our gun registry, which forced you to register your long guns, was brought in after a massacre at a quebec university 20 years ago, and it was scrapped this year. The registry was popular amongst police forces, as it allowed them to trace stolen weapons and solve crimes, and decried by low information voters like yourself.

  • http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/business/media/for-martins-case-a-long-route-to-national-attention.html?_r=2&hp Allenp

    Wayno, click my name for a story about how this story grew into the media event it is today.
    This didn’t happen overnight. This family attempted to get justice for weeks with very little outside attention, and then other people got involved when those in power refused to do what was right. And they are still refusing.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    @ Allen – Yeah, that makes more sense. Sad that it took so long to reach national attention with all of that in mind. I work in law enforcement currently and it’s crazy how horribly the police handled this whole thing. Makes me wonder what they have to gain from thier inaction. How can you have a dead guy, a shooter, and no arrests in a situation like this? Simply shocking. If media pressure and public outcry is what it takes for police to arrest this dude then I’m cool with that. Still, the media is so full of half truths and flat out lies I have a hard time believing any of it without doing my own research. In reading peoples comments, it’s clear that people assign alot of wieght to any piece of press that comes thier way, and that just drives me nuts.

  • chekpnt

    **Criticizing and stereotyping one’s political group is equally as bad as criticizing and stereotyping one’s race.

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