NBA players have expressed their concerns regarding social issues since the Black Lives Matter movement became strong across the nation. Manyof them, like Chris Paul, have vowed their views and taken some shots at President Donald Trump, most recentlyright when the RNC Convention was taking place.
The players have called the President outday and night, and Trump hasn’t shied away from controversies and has repeatedly fired back at the NBA community, claiming the players are ‘very nasty’ and ‘very dumb’ for kneeling during the national anthem.
This back-and-forth reached a whole new level when Chris Paul addressed the media following the Oklahoma City Thunder’s victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of the 1st round of the NBA playoffs.
Chris Paul’s Postgame Interview
The star point guard and president of the NBA Player’s Association didn’t seem to care about his team’s heroiccomeback to tie the series, and immediately changed the course of the conversation to talk about Jacob Blake andchallenge all NBA players to register to vote for the upcoming election:
“I don’t know. (The victory) That’s all good and well. I just want to send my prayers out to Jacob Blake and their family. The things we decided to come down here to play for, and we said we’re going to speak on the social injustice and the things that continue to happen to our people. It’s not right. It’s not right. So the win is good, but voting is real. I’m going to challenge all my NBA guys, other sports guys: Let’s try to get our entire teams registered to vote. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the country. You know, sports — it’s cool, it’s good and well, that’s how we take care of our families. But those are the real issues that we’ve got to start addressing,” Paul said whilethe RNC Convention wasbeing held in his native North Carolina.
For those who lack the context, the NBA Player’s Association agreed to resume play as long as they’d have the chance to vow their concerns and political views, as they didn’t want basketball to stand in the way of their movement.
Paul, for instance, has been quite vocal during the RNC Convention and has made the most of his time in the NBA bubble to spread awareness about HBCUs. Now, President Trump is pretty likely to fire back at Paul’s comments.