When the NBA gets back on the court later this month for its restart in the Disney bubble in Orlando, a number of players will be wearing uniforms with various social justice messages on the back in place of their names.
The NBA offered players a list of messages through collaboration with the players association, but many were left underwhelmed by the options and not particularly pleased that they were constrained to the list. It’s for that reason that some like LeBron James and Jimmy Butler won’t put a message on their uniform, with LeBron simply wearing his regular jersey while Butler will remove any name or message and play with just a number on the back.
On Sunday, word emerged from Shams Charania of The Athletic that the NBPA is partnering with Russell Westbrook’s clothing line to create warmup t-shirts for players that will feature more messages that were not on the approved list, including things like “Am I Next?” and “Police Reform.”
Sources: Message options for new NBPA/Russell Westbrook lifestyle shirts: Systemic Racism, Police Reform, I Can’t Breathe, No Justice No Peace, Break the Cycle, Strange Fruit, By Any Means, Power to the People, Equality, Am I Next? https://t.co/N5uXh7Ss9L
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 19, 2020
Westbrook’s Honor The Gift will create the shirts and apparently supply them to the players in the bubble — Westbrook himself hopes to join the Rockets in Orlando relatively soon after testing positive for the coronavirus earlier this month.
It will be interesting to see how players respond to these shirts and whether they feel they offer a better array of messages to choose from. As players like Jrue Holiday and others pledge to donate their bubble salaries to social justice causes and Black-owned businesses, they will continue to seek out ways to use the platform that will be available to them to amplify the message and keep the issues at the forefront of people’s minds, even as basketball begins.