Kevin Durant and the Nets were in Minnesota as protests began following the police shooting of Daunte Wright, and after both Brooklyn and the Timberwolves made pregame statements in regards to the shooting, Durant spoke on the state of social justice following the Nets' victory on Tuesday.
"At this point, you just don't really understand what's going on around here," Durant said. "It's different stories every day of families lives getting altered because of police brutality. At this point, I don't even know what to say."
The Nets-Timberwolves game was postponed on Monday, with the NBA offering its condolences to Wright's family in a statement announcing the postponement, and when the two teams took the floor for Tuesday's makeup game, both were wearing identical black warmup shirts, which read "With liberty and justice for all." Both team's Twitter accounts posted the phrase with photos of their players warming up in the shirts.
"I think guys are obviously aware of what's going on in our country, and we have conversations about this all the time, but once we step on the floor, we know what our job is," Durant said. "But the dialogue is never going to stop on how we can better our society, and a lot of guys are doing their part."
Last year, following news of police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks did not take the floor for their playoff game, and soon after, all games were postponed. Players did not go to such measures after Wright was shot and killed, but Durant said players have never stopped working to do their part to raise awareness and use their platform to spark change.
"We're not talking about using this platform to make a stand, but a lot of guys are doing their part individually in their communities," Durant said. "We're all doing stuff where we played, where we went to school, where we grew up. Obviously we want to use our voice and platform, but I think a lot of guys are quietly doing their thing behind the scenes and trying to work towards a solution for all this stuff. Whether we do it on an NBA stage or behind the scenes, I think it'll all help."
"It's an ongoing problem for the last 400 years," Durant said. "Who knows when it will stop? But the awareness is good. People in positions of power are trying to do their part to find solutions, but it's a whole world problem. All of us have to come together at some point to figure it out."
For Durant, seeing multiple incidents such as Wright's occur in the past year has been difficult, and while he doesn't know how it will be brought to an end, he knows it has to stop.
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