Member-only story
Shut up and dribble. Please?
NBA players had had enough and were willing to withhold their labor for Black Liberation. Then they made the mistake of calling our Nation’s First Black President.
I was playing 2k when my girlfriend told me the news. I was preparing to end my gaming session soon because I knew a slate of playoff games were set to begin, and I wanted to watch them. The Milwaukee Bucks said no more. I was shocked but also delighted. I felt that it was the right move, no, it was the only move. Jacob Blake had just been shot seven times in his back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a few days prior. Kenosha is roughly 43 miles from where the Bucks call home. Milwaukee’s largest racial demographic are African Americans. Black Milwaukeeans had to be hurting even more than the rest of Black America, given their proximity to Kenosha. Their heroes of the hardwood decided to take a stand. The rest of the teams at the NBA’s bubble in Orlando joined them soon after. I felt it in my bones; we were about to build the collective capacity for a General Strike. Then, for some reason, they called Barack Obama, and, as we all should have expected, he politely told them to shut up and dribble.