With a week and a half to live in the bubble, downtown Los Angeles Lakers Dwight Howard has received attention for his escapes rather than what is more important to him as the NBA nears its restart: helping to his teammates on the court and help create positive change in the United States.
He has had a hand on attention, to be clear. Howard told reporters during a video conference on Saturday that he felt compelled to convey his experiences within the bubble in Orlando, Florida, to his 2.7 million followers on Instagram to “give people some positive messages.”
Two videos he shared drew involuntary scrutiny. In one, released last weekend, Howard wandered around an empty DJ set, capturing the scene on his phone as he ordered a cocktail at a poolside bar. “Dwight told me he was the only one there,” Lakers teammate Anthony Davis said the next day.
In the second, Howard revealed that he had been turned over to the NBA campus hotline, also known as the “snitch line,” for not wearing his mask in common areas such as the hotel lobby and player lounges.
As complicit as Howard was sparking both controversies over the same content he provided to the masses, he wanted to refocus on a more substantive topic on Saturday, including the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black. An emergency medical technician who was shot eight times on March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky, by plainclothes officers carrying out a narcotics search warrant without calling his department. No drugs were found.
“There are things that have been happening that we still need to discuss,” he said. “Breonna Taylor, the people who committed the egregious incident against her, are still free. They are out there living their best life.”
“Instead of worrying if I have my mask on or not, that’s something we should discuss. Why haven’t they brought these people in? Why haven’t they been accused of anything or even arrested for what they’ve done? Instead that the themes are about who doesn’t wear a mask in the bubble, who was at the DJ party, who isn’t, all these things seem entertaining, but we won’t forget what is happening in our world. “
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Lakers coach Frank Vogel stresses the importance of wearing bubble masks and says Dwight Howard is wearing a mask now after he was denounced for not wearing it.
However, Howard’s intended message might have been confused for the first few days in Florida, the Lakers big man made a big behind-the-scenes pledge by pledging the rest of his 2019-2020 salary, roughly $ 700,000, according to insider information. from the ESPN NBA office. Bobby Marks – at his charitable initiative, Breathe Again, before joining the Lakers to end the season.
He spoke extensively about three areas that Breathe Again will focus on helping the black community in his hometown of Atlanta.
Financial education
With temperatures regularly in the 90s during the summer days in Atlanta, Howard has noticed that young entrepreneurs sell bottled water and sports drinks to keep customers cool.
“These black children are on the streets selling water and Gatorade, trying to make money to live,” said Howard. “But they don’t know how to keep that money. They don’t know how to save their money. They don’t know what to do with that money. So we want to give these guys a way out. We want to teach these guys how to save their money so that when they grow up, they can have something to pass on to your children and your children’s children. “
Howard, 34, said he is working on a program that will invite children and their parents to classes that will teach savings and investment techniques.
“That is something that was missing in the black community,” he said. “We want to make sure we bring that to the forefront.”
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Dwight Howard talks to a young fan in the IG Live chat and educates him with various life lessons.
Howard was appalled to share the story of 18-year-old Jalanni Pless, who was shot dead last month by a competing street merchant in a dispute over the sale of water for $ 10, according to Pless’ mother.
“Ten dollars is what caused Jalanni’s life. Ten dollars. Think about it,” Tomeka Pless said, according to WXIA-TV.
Howard, understanding the conflicts that can be resolved through financial education, lamented the mindless murder.
“Now these precious children trying to do something positive have been taken from them,” said Howard. “So I want to take responsibility for myself and the rest of the kids in the community, and we want to guide these children in the right direction.”
Agricultural insight
Howard owns a house on land that spans more than 700 acres in northern Georgia. And on that land he has a farm where he raises animals, including cows and pigs, and cultivates.
See this post on Instagram
The Emergency Land Fund was created in 1972 to reverse the trend of decreasing black land ownership in the rural south. The bottom records include correspondence (mainly carbons and photostatic copies), mainly outgoing but some incoming. Other types of records include agenda, studies and reports, memos, financial records, and news clippings. Topics in the records include the effect of construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway on black farm ownership in Alabama and information on the National Homeowners Association, which has many branches in the south. The groups represented in the registries are Agricultural Teams, Inc, Farmers Home Administration, Ford Administration, Southern Agricultural Corporation, Southern Regional Council, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.The names of the collection include Benjamin Hooks, Maynard Jackson and Congressman Louis Stokes of Ohio. The main correspondents are Robert S. Browne and Joseph F. Brooks. Browne was the first chair of the fund and then the chairman of the board. ELF’s positive impact on rural black landowners, taking the form of organized networks that challenge discriminatory and land grabbing practices of public and private sector actors. Robert S. Browne was a man ahead of his time and a giant in the eyes of many. With training in economics from the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics, Bob Browne founded three organizations that served as critical and radical voices around economic issues. The Black Economic Research Center, founded in 1969, tried to attract other black economists for black economic development projects, and published the Review of Black Political Economy. The Emergency Land Fund, founded in 1971, fought to protect black land property and reverse its decline, especially in the rural south. Also in 1971 he founded the Siglo XXI Foundation to “promote strategic black philanthropy.” He helped organize the 1967 National Conference on Black Power and presented proposals at the 1972 Black National Political Convention for black economic empowerment.
He wants to give the young people in the community a hands-on experience running a farm themselves.
“I want to teach these children about agriculture, how to use the different utensils on the farm,” he said. “How to grow, plant, grow these different seeds and things like that. In my house this summer, I spent time teaching my children to do many different things, and we want to take that same concept and use it with these children in the city center “
History lessons
The other area that Howard’s Breathe Again initiative will focus on is giving members of the black community a current sense of self and empowerment by offering education about their past.
“We are also going to teach the laws and rights and history of blacks to these children,” Howard said.
He has already shared some of these stories on his Instagram, from a post about an all-black professional baseball team, the Cuban Giants, formed in the 1880s to another post about the first African-American musicians to hit the mainstream in early 1900.
“Giving them some history,” said Howard. “Some things they probably never would have thought of or known about, because they were not taught in the books.”
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Saturday that his team has not discussed any group demonstrations about when the games begin, and that the Lakers have a national television audience to share their messages, including Howard’s. “But I do anticipate having those kinds of conversations,” he said.
For Howard, it will be an opportunity to keep his mission on track.
“A lot of people are paying attention to everything that is happening in the bubble and with all the negativity that may be rampant in our world, we want to give them a positive view and basically some positivity during this time,” he said. “So that’s what I’ve been doing in this bubble to try to keep myself and my teammates in a great place.”
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