By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown drove 15 hours from Boston to Atlanta in order to lead the peaceful protest. Atlanta is near his native Marietta, Georgia.
The Vice President of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) noted that his status as a celebrity, an NBA player and VP of NBPA doesn’t exclude him from the ongoing troubles the American society is facing.
“I drove 15 hours to get to Georgia, my community,” Brown said via his Instagram, per ESPN. “This is a peaceful protest. Being a celebrity, being an NBA player, don’t exclude me from no conversations at all. First and foremost, I’m a black man and I’m a member of this community. … We’re raising awareness for some of the injustices that we’ve been seeing. It’s not OK. As a young person, you’ve got to listen to our perspective. Our voices need to be heard. I’m 23 years old. I don’t know all of the answers. But I feel how everybody else is feeling, for sure. No question.”
Brown marched with a megaphone while holding a sign that read, “I Can’t Breathe,” a reference to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, who is black, died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on his neck for several minutes.
Brown was joined by another NBPA vice president — Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon — as well as former first-round pick Justin Anderson, who played with Brogdon at Virginia and is currently in the G League with the Long Island Nets.