The Milwaukee Bucks spurred teams in the NBA, WNBA, MLB and MLS to boycott games on Wednesday in protest of police violence in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, and NBA players are now mulling a potential halt to the season.
Charles Barkley reacted to the protest on CNN, and reflected on the magnitude of the Bucks’ boycott.
Barkley saluted NBA players for taking a stand, and explained that it is “exhausting” for Black players in the NBA to deal with the deluge of injustice.
“The bottom line is it is exhausting being Black, especially when you are a celebrity. You know, I love Tom Brady but nobody asks him about what is going on in white America. Nobody asks Luka Doncic what’s going on in America.
White players—they’ve been amazing but they don’t live with the pressure that these young Black guys are going through every day. And if you look at the last, just in the last couple months going back to Ahmaud Arbery, Mr. Floyd, the young lady who was screaming at the Black guy in New York, now you’ve got Mr. Blake who just got shot. It is something all the time.
I admire these guys for standing up, but Wolf, it is exhausting being Black because there is a double standard when you are Black. Because I have to comment on everything that happens in the Black community. Same thing with LeBron, who is our most prominent player, but man, you get tired of something all the time.”
