It might only have been an exhibition game, and the white players may have played on without him, but Bill Russell knows the power of saying “enough.”
59 years ago, the Boston Celtics icon was set to play a preseason tilt in Lexington, Kentucky, and after arriving and getting checked in, Sam Jones and Satch Sanders went down to grab a bite to eat from the hotel cafe.
Instead, they were told their “kind” couldn’t be served, and, with Russell, ended up deciding to go back to Boston in protest despite head coach and general manager Red Auerbach’s pleas to reconsider.
“I told Red we were leaving,” said Russell.
In 61 I walked out if an exhibition game much like the @nba players did yesterday. I am one of the few people that knows what it felt like to make such an important decision. I am so proud of these young guys. It reminded me of this Pls RT @MSNBC @CNN pic.twitter.com/70VAIFxhtf
— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) August 27, 2020
“I said it was because it was important to me that everybody, everywhere, knows that the Black players are deciding they’ll stand up for themselves.”
Nearly six decades later, much has remained the same with this historic moment for the NBA; the players had simply had enough, and made it clear that whatever happened, that day there were more important things to do than play basketball.
The strike — or boycott or protest, whatever we call it — will not solve the problems that sparked its birth, nor should they be expected to.
What they should do is convey the urgency of the situation for a significant part of this nation’s and Canada’s population. So urgent these players — fully aware of the potential gravity of their actions — felt it worth risking their careers and even the solvency of their league..
To say “enough.”
” I am one of the few people that knows what it felt like to make such an important decision,” offered Russell in a tweet on Thursday. “I am so proud of these young guys.”
In the tweet, the Boston legend shared a clip from an article sparked by that fateful decision in which he was asked if he would leave the Celtics to aid the Civil Rights movement; his response?
“Yes, but only if it would make a concrete contribution. There’d be no choice. It would be the duty of any American to fight for a cause he strongly believes in.”
NBA votes to resume season after strike; today’s games likely postponed https://t.co/AK9jsqE6zL
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 27, 2020
Six decades later, when his peers asked the same question to themselves, Boston’s Jaylen Brown asked them, “Are you going home to work? Or are you going home to be on the front lines?”
There is no wrong choice to make here as individuals, and as an organization. It is not the NBA’s job to solve systemic racism than it is any individual player’s.
But we can challenge each other, and we can support each other in the decisions we make in these times — the important thing is to make sure we all listen to our peers when they say..
“Enough.”
