In recent years, professional athletes have become much more open to voicing their opinions on political and social issues plaguing the country. This change in mentality has only accelerated since Donald Trump was elected as president of the United States.
More recently, the president has supplanted himself in sports, more than ever. He called out ESPN personality Jemele Hill for calling him a white supremacist. He called Colin Kaepernick a “son of a bitch” for kneeling during the playing of the national anthem as a sign of protest against social oppression, namely police brutality and systemic racism. And on Saturday, the president called out Warriors’ point guard Stephen Curry who has made it clear he does not intend to visit the White House in the traditional event for NBA championship teams. Trump rescinded his invite, which never officially existed and which Curry obviously was not going to accept anyway. Of course, all three of these targets share something in common but what could it be?
The Los Angeles Lakers have been mostly quiet on the matter, but rookie forward Kyle Kuzma did have some things on his mind to tweet out on Friday night.
We're more concerned with celebrities being pregnant & football players kneeling than improving our country these days it seems 🐸☕️
— kuz (@kylekuzma) September 23, 2017
If u believe in something take a stand…constitution says you have that "right" https://t.co/LPnhl3hQem
— kuz (@kylekuzma) September 23, 2017
Clearly, Kuzma is in favor of athletes taking a stand and using their platform to incite positive change, as he should.
Many other athletes have taken to Twitter to say something along those lines with the best one coming from superstar Cavs’ forward LeBron James:
U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017
The Lakers have been somewhat active politically and socially in recent years. Luol Deng shared his experiences as a refugee when Trump installed a temporary ban on refugees from majority-Muslim countries. Last year, Tarik Black organized a sort of protest as Lakers players locked arms in a show of unity during the playing of the national anthem. While retired, Kobe Bryant is doing more and more to help create social reform.
Although the majority of players on the Lakers are young and don’t have the same life experience as their more vocal counterparts, they do have one of the largest platforms in the world. It’s good to see them collect their thoughts and use that platform to inspire change.
Don’t stick to sports, fellas.
