By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Phoenix Suns guard Ricky Rubio elaborated on a comment he made on Twitter to a recent “The NBA challenges Trump” headline of Spanish newspaper AS, saying that the movement and protests for social justice and racial equality are part of a cause that has a worldwide scale.
“It’s not a cause only in the United States. It’s a global cause,” Rubio said in a zoom call following the win of his team over the Dallas Mavericks. “Racism exists globally, not only in the USA but in the whole world and we want to use that platform to reach many people and make them open their eyes. We [society] have been silent for a long time and it makes us all guilty. Now we are doing it in the United States and it looks like it only exists here and that’s an attack on the president. Not at all.”
Rubio had retweeted the cover of AS that had the above-mentioned headline with a picture of Los Angeles Lakers players kneeling while wearing “Black Lives Matter” shirts, writing: “The NBA does not challenge Trump, the NBA believes that it is time to speak up and try to create solutions to a problem that has existed for many years, not only with Trump. It would be nice if we all try not to find controversy, but to help.”
The recent uprising against racism and police brutality in the USA that began following the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a policeman in Minneapolis, was spread throughout numerous countries around the world. Thousands of demonstrators protested also in Rubio’s native Spain.
“All of us have to do our bit to get the message across in this situation, not to create more wars and [different] sides,” Rubio said. “Everyone should be treated equally, regardless of race. It’s very important to have a good education because when you are little, they make you see something as normal when it shouldn’t be normal.”