The nearly 20 players stood side by side near center court. Behind them, 20 more players did the same thing.
Every player on the Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers then performed one uniform gesture. They locked arms together during the national anthem before a recent preseason game at Staples Center.
Since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started kneeling during the anthem before games during the NFL preseason, other pro, college and high school athletes have followed with their own gestures to protest social injustice, specifically police brutality against unarmed black people.
The Lakers huddled in recent weeks and brainstormed how they would protest with one specific goal in mind.
“We didn’t want anybody to feel disrespected,” Lakers guard Lou Williams said. “We want to do something just to show unity and solidarity. Instead of kneeling, we just decided to lock arms and show we’re all on the same page.”
The Lakers, and other NBA teams, have shown unity with the goal of bringing more awareness to the numerous deaths involving unarmed black men and law enforcement officials in the past year. But will the method prove more or less effective than Kaepernick’s?
“You have to go all out like what Kaepernick did to really force the issue,” Lakers forward Nick Young said. “I don’t want to say we protested in a soft way, but it’s a political way. We’re not trying to cause any drama, but we want to let people know what’s happening.”
The Lakers plan to perform a similar protest in their preseason finale against the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at Honda Center. But the circumstances might change.
For example, the Lakers and Denver Nuggets locked arms in an exhibition last week, only for the teams to lock arms separately in another game. Even if the nuances of their protest might vary, the Lakers plan to lock arms during the national anthem for the foreseeable future.
The players plan to do more than pregame gestures, though. Following practices on Saturdays in November, the Lakers plan to host police officers and youth to play basketball at their practice facility in El Segundo. Lakers players will engage with both groups in an event the Lakers said is “designed to help build bridges between the police and the community.”
“Stuff like this starts the conversation,” Lakers forward Tarik Black said. “Civilians love basketball and love the Lakers. Police officers love basketball and love the Lakers. They come together on common grounds and on something they can agree and have fun with. You also put them in an area where they start understanding each other.”
Will those interactions produce enough change?
“The locking of arms is a great political gesture,” said Harry Edwards, a professor emeritus of sociology at UC Berkeley. “The challenge of moving beyond that to actual progress means that now it’s not just enough to protest. You have to reach out to those that are parties to this struggle.”
Edwards also lauded the NBA’s recent efforts in addressing racial issues.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver promptly removed former Clippers owner Donald Sterling after an audio recording emerged of him making racially insensitive remarks. Miami Heat players took a photo of themselves wearing hoodies during the 2012-13 season, in reference to 17-year-old Trayvon Martin being shot by George Zimmerman in his Florida neighborhood.
Several NBA teams, including the Lakers, wore “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts at times during pregame warm-ups and when players sat on the bench during the 2014-15 season. The slogan referred to Eric Garner, a young African American who died after a police officer choked him in New York. Though the incident was captured and shown on video, a grand jury recently decided not to indict the police officer.
“It doesn’t really matter what the form of the protest is,” said Edwards, who has advised Kaepernick and recently visited the Seattle Seahawks. “You had people marching in the 1960s. You had people sitting in the 1960s. You had people rioting in the 1960s. You had people boycotting altogether. All of these actions were taken toward achieving the same goal. Broadening the base of the democratic participation in American mainstream institutions in terms of voting, education and politics.”
Still, the Lakers acknowledged uncertainty as to whether their approach will become more or less effective than what Kaepernick has done.
“You can’t force the issue,” Black said. “If it happens, it happens. You can only control so much. I can’t control people’s minds.”
On one hand, the Lakers acknowledged frustration that so much attention has focused on whether Kaepernick’s protest disrespected the military instead of his concerns of racial injustice.
“Any time you set a trail and are the first person to do it, you’re going to get mixed reviews and reactions,” Williams said. “There’s a lot of people that are getting emotional about what he’s doing. I wish they would stop for a second and listen to what he’s saying besides focusing on him kneeling.”
On the other hand, the Lakers are mindful that the increased controversy surrounding Kaepernick’s protest sparked dialogue for several news cycles. It also sparked a movement among other athletes. As Williams said, “I’ve become educated on a lot of these situations based off of Kaepernick’s protest.”
LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade spoke out at the ESPY Awards in July about violence against unarmed black men and police officers. Anthony also hosted a forum in Los Angeles that featured members of the U.S. Olympic men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Los Angeles Police Department and South Central youth and community leaders. Those episodes sparked attention, but not as much as Kaepernick’s gesture.
“As an athlete, if I came out every day and talked, people would say they just want to hear about basketball,” Lakers forward Luol Deng said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to come out, talk politics and try to shape the world. But when I do something with courage that gets everybody’s attention to see what I’m trying to voice, I think people pay attention to it. My whole thing with the Kaepernick movement is, ‘What is the issue?’ It’s not so much, ‘What is he doing?’”
Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Luke Walton met with the team before training camp to express support for whatever protests the team wanted to make. The NBA also sent a letter to the players union expressing the same thing.
Unlike the NFL, though, the NBA states in its rulebook that all “players, coaches and trainers are to stand up and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the national anthem.”
“You have people who have brands that don’t want to mess that up,” Young said. “There’s fines and people don’t want to lose money. So we did (the protest) in a respectful way.”
All of which the Lakers believe can help spark positive change.
While Black decried how cable news coverage focuses more on featuring arguments than explaining an issue in-depth, a respectful gesture and subsequent community events could lead to more dialogue. Williams already hosts clinics for inner-city youth through his foundation. Young hopes the team can organize more events in local communities.
Until then, the Lakers will keep locking arms and in an effort to bring awareness to an issue they understand remains complicated.
“People have to understand police officers. They have a very tough job. How many times do people have a job when every time they go to work, their life is on the line?” Black said. “But there’s a feeling that our life is on the line now. If I get pulled over, I’m scared. I’m afraid for my life. That shouldn’t be it.”
