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Andrew LopezESPN
New Orleans Pelicans guard JJ Redick said he never doubted whether 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 league came back, it would play. But that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily comfortable with it.
“We started to see that momentum that maybe we were going to play,” Redick said in a video call, coming back over the past few weeks. “… And then all of a sudden George Floyd is killed, Breonna Taylor is killed, the Ahmaud Arbery tape comes out.”
As the league tried to work out the logistics to restart the season, players were saying what they thought about racism, social injustice, and the deaths of Floyd, Taylor, and Arbery. Then another wave of COVID-19 blow.
Everything is something that Redick and other players have had to process.
“So to say we have some 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 is social unrest in the country, and we are three months away from the potentially most important election in our lives.
“So all that is happening. Now, we have to find a way to play basketball and all that, because I think it is the right thing to go to play. But there is absolutely no comfort level, none. And I know the league and I know that the union has tried to create this environment, and I understand that, but there is much more at the moment. We are going to play, we will do our best. But we realize that there are many more important things. “
Redick, who is in the Social Justice Leadership Coalition of New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson, Gayle Benson, has spent time the past three months using her voice to speak out against injustice.
“I think he is trying to listen, especially listening to the voices of blacks, you have to find out where you should put aside and where you should speak and where you should act,” said Redick. “We’re all discovering that in real time. Just having the basic human emotion of empathy, I think it’s very easy to say, ‘I need to speak, I need to act, I need help, I need to listen.’ Whatever it is, some of it is having empathy, honestly. “
Redick said he appreciated that the league and the players union allowed players to use their platforms in Orlando to advocate for social justice. However, for Redick, it goes beyond just having Black Lives Matter on the court or some sort of representation on their jerseys.
“More importantly, the league, the union, the players, we are actively trying to create a policy change and invest in black communities, real dollars. That will happen over the course of several years. It will not be a rapid change, it will be incremental.” Redick said.
“I think that’s more important than having something behind our shirts. The system has to change, the way we portray, the way we speak, the way we treat people. But the system itself has to change. That’s the most important part for our league is how we help create systemic change. “
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