Denver Nuggets Navigating ‘Delicate Balance’ Between Racial Justice Activism And Basketball

As the media members in the arena and on the Zoom call following the Denver Nuggets’ Saturday practice waited for starting point guard Jamal Murray’s turn to speak, he quietly placed a pair of shoes on his chair, leaving them laying there silently for several minutes before taking a seat and answering questions.

“I just wanted it to resonate,” Murray replied when asked about the gesture. “How long was that, two minutes? One person on that shoe had a knee on their neck for eight.”

“It doesn’t take me, a 23-year-old, to recognize that, and that should be on everybody’s mind,” Murray added. “If you don’t see it that way, then there’s a problem with you.”

The person pictured on Murray’s right shoe was George Taylor, whose May 25 killing by the Minneapolis police sparked a massive resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice and against police brutality. Inscribed on the left shoe was Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death on March 13 by police who entered her home on a no-knock warrant.

“He was a father, and a son, and a brother, and you know, it’s tough when you really let it sink in your mind and replay it over and over in your head.”

It was the Nuggets’ first media availability following the boycott staged by the Milwaukee Bucks last Wednesday, which came both in direct response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who remains in the hospital and was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot seven times in the back in front of his children, as well as due to a growing feeling among many NBA players that not enough had been done to leverage their and the league’s platform toward enacting genuine change.

The Bucks’ boycott triggered a cascade of events beginning with the postponement of all NBA games that day, followed by hastily-assembled player and league meetings, and culminating in an agreement between the NBA and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) which was announced jointly on Friday.

“It’s been a wild two days overall, just trying to make things better,” backup point guard Monte Morris said after Saturday’s practice. Morris served as a Nuggets team representative in the meetings.

“The biggest thing, you know, we’re just trying to make action happen right away,” Morris said.

Voting emerged as a central issue in the NBA and NBPA agreement, and was cited in all three points of commitment outlined in the statement. Morris heavily emphasized the second tenet of the agreement, which stipulates that “In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID.”

“A major thing is trying to have our owners help to open up the arenas for people to vote. Voting is a big thing,” Morris explained. “Less than 20% of the NBA actually voted last year, so…that was a big one where we gotta step up and take more ownership to actually see a change.”

Following Blake’s shooting last week, Murray posted a tweet which stated, “WE DEMAND JUSTICE!!!”

When I asked Jamal Murray in the context of his tweet if the Nuggets’ players and management had had the opportunity to begin discussing ways to achieve the commitments outlined in the agreement, he echoed Morris’ sentiment regarding taking ownership.

“The first step is just to get every team registered to vote,” Murray replied. “We want to be able to go and tell everybody in the world to vote, and that their vote makes a difference and we gotta hold ourselves accountable.”

“As players, you know, I take that personally,” Murray continued. “If I’m not making shots, it’s hard for me to tell somebody to make shots. If I’m not playing defense, it’s hard for me to tell somebody to play defense.”

“That’s the first step, to hold ourselves accountable so that when we go and have these new plans in order…to make change, we’re holding ourselves to a high standard as well.”

When it came to the reasons why making change is necessary, both Murray and Morris spoke passionately about the profound impact of racial injustice.

“The mental side of it is a really big factor,” Murray said, “how you think about it, how you perceive things, how you look at somebody.”

“The color of my skin should not determine whether I live or die.”

Monte Morris explained how personally the emotional impact of racial injustice has affected him. “It’s been tough for me, you know, just seeing what’s going on, police brutality, it’s a tough topic,” Morris said. “Cause it’s definitely not gonna be the last shooting, and that’s the crazy thing, we know that.”

“I’m from a rough area, mostly black, things like that,” Morris explained. “So it’s tough for me just knowing I’ve got family back there – my mom, my nieces.”

“So seeing stuff like that happen, it could be any one of us.”

But as if all of that weren’t difficult and challenging enough, the Nuggets players and staff must now turn their sights on tonight’s sixth game of their first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz.

“I put myself in our players’ shoes, and it’s hard, man, it’s such a delicate balance,” head coach Michael Malone said. “I wanna do what’s right for society, I want to do what’s right for my people, and I also have a game to play.”

Malone spoke of Denver’s first practice following the boycott as the “worst” in his five years, but said Saturday was better, and added: “I’m hoping that by 8:30 tomorrow night in Orlando, that our guys understand… this opportunity that we have in front of us to continue to advance our series and stay here, and also using the platform while we’re here to continue to get our message across.”

Morris said Saturday’s practice “definitely helped” and “energized” the Nuggets players “on the basketball side, knowing it’s win or go home.”

“I think we took a step forward, and was able to put our emotions behind us,” Morris said, “and know that we’re still here for basketball also.”