Sometimes it feels like we can actually have nothing. In June 2019 at Oracle Arena, the president of Toronto Raptors of basketball action must have flashed Masai Ujiri’s life before his eyes. At the most glorious moment of his career and perhaps life, his freedom, dignity and pride were almost taken away from him by a police officer – in a moment that was captured on video and is as haunting as it is redemptive.
To describe the exchange quickly, New Monday released Monday showing the officer, Alan Strickland, pushing Ujiri twice and Ujiri not backing down. And when the altercation ended physically, the clip shows that it was probably psychologically nowhere near. In one frame, we see Ujiri, now an NBA champion, running to court to celebrate with the team he built. There is a look on his face that every Black person in America directly understands. It is the humble mix of amazement, confusion, shame but ability that sometimes overwhelms you when you are dealing with a white person in a position of authority that you do not respect.
There’s an officer’s face that says one thing and one thing: Stay in your place.
And while the guy in the green sweater frantically tries to keep the peace, Ujiri in the next 10 seconds agrees with basically his entire life. (Do not even bother me at the beginning about the old white couple pointing at him.) Every single Black person I know has been through this moment. “Shall I let this person seriously leave my agency and well-deserved, never-deserved, well-deserved decency?” “Why do I even think about this?” Frustration, often fear, then the cool feeling of dismissal that this is exactly what it is. Racism destroys everything. And it’s never our fault.
I will need video power that Ujiri beat the police officer. From what I read, the officer asked him for his references. You damn well know who that man is. I hope his dumb ass gets traffic duty next weekend
– Aaron Fancher (@ TeachMeHowTo9er) June 14, 2019
Sure, you can probably even say that neither the NBA, the Raptors nor Ujiri should have ever come close to that kind of scenario. But you would be wrong. Do you think it’s a coincidence that he’s currently the only brother to run a team in the league? Here’s the thing: The security guards must be there to protect him of people. Not to protect themselves against him. But, yanno, Blackness remains.
After all those emotions that run high in the clip, something wonderful happens. Kyle Lowry, the man who just had the game of his life to silence quite a few people who were critical of his consistency on the field, saves the day. He sticks himself out and grabs his boss from the battle, distancing himself from the crowd of people Ujiri was trying to navigate in the first place. Not to squeeze this too closely, but what happened next legit flew me when I saw it in real time.
Before that pick-me-up was done, the two were already in an embrace. Lowry was not alone in physically removing Ujiri from safety. He protected his pride, his respect: his blackness. Two seconds later, with Lowry surrounding him, Ujiri looked back at where he had been taken. he was dat near another Black man in jail in Alameda County, California because he did not have verification (he had one).
It’s almost incomprehensible how incredible this moment was from Lowry. Let me remind you that Lowry is the same one who dealt with an actual NBA minority owner who shook him on the sidelines after a ball went out of bounds. From the front office to the court downstairs, the Black body, in a competition with arguably the Blackest population of all pro big sports, gets little to no respect.
Lowry treated that situation with grace, and a level of diplomacy that only the players of the highest caliber could. But what happened after Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals was different. He protected.
If your job is to secure the league and you do not know who the president of basketball operations is for the team that just won the title, the blame lies with the officer and / or NBA security, net on Ujiri.
THIS IS AMAZING pic.twitter.com/6n47VAtFia
– Mastermind (@Mastermind) June 14, 2019
At the moment, it feels like too clear an example of how the now gentrified San Francisco Warriors were forced out of their hometown of Oakland, California, on the blacker side of the bay.
That was two strikes on the home court of the Warriors in one series. Don’t let it get to three, because, oh, wait, it never matters. That’s just a rule America made to throw Black people in jail for the rest of their lives, in case you forgot.
Kawhi Leonard was a deserving and fantastic NBA Finals MVP. But for this series, Kyle Lowry was the hero.
At the highest risk and all the highest reward, Lowry told his friend Ujiri the most meaningful thing he could have heard at the time: ‘We over over here. ”
Because there can be nothing else if you are a winner.
