The National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) established a committee focused on helping prevent racial injustice and push for reform in NBA cities, and it’s great to hear Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff is on that.
What happened in Minneapolis last week to George Floyd was indefensible, and it’s nice to hear that the NBA and coaching community is working to make a difference to help prevent other situations such as that one. Additionally, Cleveland Cavaliers head J.B. Bickerstaff will be heavily involved in doing so, too.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Monday, it was announced that the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) established a committee on “racial injustice and reform to pursue solutions within NBA cities.”
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Bickerstaff is one of eight current/former NBA head coaches on the committee, which denounced the George Floyd killing and as Wojnarowski emphasized, “the greater pattern of violence and intolerance toward African Americans in the United States.”
Others on the committee include the San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich, the L.A. Clippers’ Doc Rivers, the Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr, the Atlanta Hawks’ Lloyd Pierce and the Utah Jazz’s Quin Snyder. Also included are former Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale and former Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy, all as noted by Woj.
Woj would then note how each NBA head coach was involved in a Zoom call on Saturday and others were in a Sunday committee gathering.
Plus, he noted that NBCA president and Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle and NBCA executive director David Fogel stressed how the NBCA were set to have a call on Tuesday on how to proceed with action in NBA cities.
Here was what the committee said in regards to the recent tragedy in Minneapolis, via Woj, and again, it’s great to hear that Bickerstaff is going to be a key leader in the league in helping prevent similar situations in our country. Also, Woj noted that this statement was signed by “33 current and former head coaches and nearly 180 assistants.
"“As NBA coaches — both head and assistant coaches — we lead groups of men, most of whom are African American, and we see, hear and share their feelings of disgust, frustration, helplessness and anger. The events of the past few weeks — police brutality, racial profiling and the weaponization of racism — are shameful, inhumane and intolerable.“As a diverse group of leaders, we have a responsibility to stand up and speak out for those who don’t have a voice — and to stand up and speak out for those who don’t feel it is safe to do so.“Witnessing the murder of George Floyd in cold blood and in broad daylight has traumatized our nation, but the reality is that African Americans are targeted and victimized on a daily basis. As NBA coaches, we cannot treat this as an isolated incident of outrage.“We are committed to working in our NBA cities with local leaders, officials and law enforcement agencies to create positive change in our communities. We have the power and platform to affect change, and we will use it.”"
Moreover, what happened to George Floyd has no place anywhere, and it’s just disgusting to think that was in our country. What happened stemming from racism and police brutality as referenced by those coaches was “shameful, inhumane and intolerable.”
It is again, though, tremendous to know that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Bickerstaff will be helping prevent similar situations arising, along with the other head coaches/former head coaches named.
This type of thing can not happen, but it’s at least great that to me as a Cavaliers fan, that Bickerstaff will be among those leading in helping make sure similar acts do not happen in Cleveland and in NBA cities and really, elsewhere.
This also plays right into how Bickerstaff is just the candidate the Cavaliers needed as their head coach to get them steered in the right direction. He seems to be quite the leader of men, and it’s nice to know that he is looking to be at the forefront of meaningful change.
On the floor, while it appears increasingly likely that the 19-46 Cavaliers will not be playing any more games this season due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, per recent reports on Friday, the squad was playing much better, too, under Bickerstaff.
When he took over the head coaching reigns after the All-Star break, the Wine and Gold were a much better 5-6 in that span and had the league’s sixth-best assist rate, per NBA.com. Collin Sexton, Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr. and Matthew Dellavedova (a team-leading 5.5 assists per outing) seemed especially in-rhythm, too, while the group seemed re-energized.
Anyway, looking forward, also factoring in him being on this NBCA committee, it’s clear that the Cleveland Cavaliers have a heck of a leader in Bickerstaff.
This sort of participation from him in using his platform to help prevent racial injustice just demonstrates that even more.