New Orleans pelican guard JJ Redick said he never really hesitated to play in Orlando, Florida as part of the NBA restart during the coronavirus pandemic.
As he told reporters on Friday morning, his logic was simple: if the championship had returned, he would have played. But that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily comfortable with it.
“We started to see the momentum that we might have played,” said Redick in a video call, retracing the past few weeks. “… And then, suddenly, George Floyd is killed, Breonna Taylor is murdered, Ahmaud Arbery’s tape comes out.”
While the league was trying to figure out the logistics to start the season over, the players were voicing their views on racism, social injustice and the death of Floyd, Taylor and Arbery. Then another wave of COVID-19 hits.
It’s all something Redick and other players have had to come up with.
“So to say we have any kind of comfort level would be a lie. There is no comfort level,” said Redick. “We are not with our families. We are not in our homes. We are [going to be] isolated in a bubble in the middle of a hot spot in the middle of Florida – while there are social unrest going on in the country, and we are three months away from the potentially most important elections of our lives.
“So there is everything going on. Now, we have to find a way to perform and play basketball and everything else, because I think it’s the right thing to play and play. But there is absolutely no level of comfort – none And I know the league and I know that the union has tried to create this environment, and I understand it – but there is so much more right now. We will go to play, we will do our best. But we realize that there are many more Important things “.
Redick, who is part of the pelicans and the owner of the New Orleans Saints Gayle Benson’s Social Justice Leadership Coalition, has spent the past three months using his voice to speak out against injustice.
“I think he’s trying to listen, especially by listening to the black voices, you have to understand where you should step back and where you should speak and where you should act,” said Redick. “We are all understanding it in real time. Having only the basic human emotion of empathy, I think it is very easy to say: ‘I must speak, I must act, I need help, I must listen.’ Whatever it may be. Partly it’s just empathizing, honestly. “
Redick said he appreciated the fact that the players’ league and union are allowing players to use their platforms in Orlando to support social justice. However, for Redick, it goes beyond having Black Lives Matter on the pitch or a kind of representation on their shirts.
“More importantly, the league, the union, the players, we are actively trying to create a policy change and invest in black communities, real dollars. This will happen over any number of years. It won’t be a quick change, it will be incremental, “said Redick.
“I think it’s more important than us to have something on the back of our shirts. The system has to change, the way we represent, the way we speak, the way we treat people. But the system itself has to change. This is the most important part for our league, how we can help create systemic change. “
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