What began as the germ of an idea in the NBA bubble Wednesday spread quickly.
By the time the NBA players’ wildcat strike in protest of the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake hit “Inside the NBA,” analyst and co-host Kenny Smith said his “head is ready to explode just in the thoughts of what’s going on” and he decided he needed to walk out too.
“As a Black man, as a former player, I think it’s best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight,” Smith said, unplugging his lapel microphone. “And figure out what happens after that. I just don’t feel equipped to do that.”
Ernie Johnson, another co-host, said, “I respect that,” as Smith left.
It wasn’t clear whether Johnson or fellow co-hosts Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal knew in advance what Smith was going to do.
But much like the special edition of “Inside the NBA”
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they did after the death of retired great Kobe Bryant in January, it was a powerful bit of television tying the real world and real sentiment in real time.“Wow,” CBS’ Stephen Colbert said after showing a clip of Smith’s walkout. “That is a mic drop, or at least a gently unclipped and respectfully set down on the desk in a stunning display of solidarity. I’ve never seen that before. I think Kenny Smith just took a knee while making a slam dunk.”
The players’ move forced the NBA to postpone games Wednesday, and other leagues did the same.
Turner Sports NBA analyst Chris Webber choked back emotion as told the Smith-less “Inside the NBA” panel that he applauded the action of the Milwaukee Bucks players and others participating in the work stoppage.
“I keep hearing, ‘What’s next? What’s next?’ ” Webber said. “Well, you’ve got to plan what’s next. You have to figure out what’s next. I’m very proud of the players. I don’t know the next steps.
“I don’t really care what the next steps are because the first steps are to garner attention, and they have everybody’s attention around the world right now. Then leadership and others will get together and decide the next steps.
“So, we know it won’t end tomorrow. We know that there’s been a million marches, and nothing will change tomorrow. We know. ‘Vote.’ We keep hearing, ‘Vote, everybody vote.’ But I’m here to speak for those that are always marginalized, those that live in these neighborhoods where we preach to them and tell them to vote and walk away.”
The mission is ongoing, Webber said, and the point of it is to move things forward for the next generation and the generation after that.
“If not now, when?” he asked. “If not during a pandemic and countless lives being lost. If not now, when?”
The NBA attempted to place racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement at the center of its controlled campus near Orlando, Fla., after the fallout from the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., two of the latest high-profile incidents of extrajudicial killings by police officers. The NBA painted “Black Lives Matter” on the courts in the bubble and allowed players to include league-approved messages on the backs of their jerseys.
But players and coaches clearly were rocked by the incident involving Blake, who is Black. And taking the NBA’s lead, players in other leagues followed suit Wednesday. WNBA players later decided not to play Wednesday night’s games. And three Major League Baseball games — between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants — were postponed, as were five of six scheduled Major League Soccer games.
Arlo White, NBC’s Premier League announcer and a voice of Chicago Fire soccer, seemed dismayed by reports that Dell Loy Hansen, owner of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake, said he took his club’s decision not to play Los Angeles FC Wednesday personally as a sign of “profound” disrespect that has dimmed his enthusiasm for investing in it.
“Then sell the clubs, and leave our sport …” White tweeted.
On Thursday’s edition of ESPN’s “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith noted, “We haven’t seen anything like this before, not in our lifetime.”
Co-host Max Kellerman compared how law enforcement handled armed white protesters in Idaho with how Blacks are routinely dealt.
“Black life has always been cheap in this country, and it’s time it starts getting more expensive,” he said.
Barkley spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer before his basketball show Wednesday but expressed weariness at having to answer the same sort of questions over and over after yet another incident.
“It’s exhausting being Black, especially when you’re a celebrity,” Barkley said. “I love (NFL quarterback) Tom Brady, but nobody asks him what’s going on in white America. … There’s a double standard when you’re Black, because I have to comment on everything that happens in the Black community. Same thing with LeBron (James of the Lakers), who’s our most prominent player.”