NBA commissioner backs players who protested gun violence after Thousand Oaks shooting
LA Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discusses the recent protests enveloping the NFL, but said that the NBA rules are clear: Players must stand during the anthem, and if they don’t, there could be consequences.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed support Sunday after members of the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks wore black T-shirts with the slogan “Enough” to protest gun violence in the wake of a deadly shooting in Thousand Oaks, California.
“As I’ve always said, our players aren’t just ballplayers, they’re citizens,” Silver told ESPN. “They have strong feelings about what’s happening in society and they react to them. I think this was something that was a groundswell within the league. It came from the players and it spread by word of mouth from one team to another.”
The “Enough” T-shirts also displayed the names of all 12 victims of the shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill. Police identified Ian David Long, 28, as the gunman who opened fire on the crowd with a handgun before committing suicide. The bar is located about 40 miles away from Los Angeles.
The Lakers and Hawks wore the shirts during pre-game warmups. The Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks did the same before their game last Saturday.
“It all comes back to this gun situation that we have in America and gun violence,” Lakers star LeBron James told reporters. “I don't want to go into that right now, but I can do it at a later point. We know that these people are just being able to go and buy guns and do things with them, and innocent lives are being taken at young ages. Young ages."
This isn’t the first time that NBA players have advocated for social change. James was one of several players to wear an “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt before games in 2014 to protest the death of Eric Garner, who died after a New York City police officer placed him in a chokehold during an arrest.