SALT LAKE CITY — During the past few months, Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has become a notable voice in the conversations about racial justice, and that continued Wednesday in a first-person piece published by The Players’ Tribune.
Yes, Mitchell spent a good portion of the piece recounting the events of March 11 and the immediate aftermath, as Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test was the impetus for the shutdown of sports in North America and he himself tested positive hours later. But much of the story focused on his personal experiences with racial injustice.
Mitchell concluded it by addressing Jazz fans who have directed racially insensitive comments at him over the past few months, of which many have come on social media.
“At the end of the day, if you rock my jersey, then you should know what I stand for,” the piece reads. “You should know what’s on my heart. And what’s on my heart, after five long, surreal, difficult months, is this. ... I love Utah. I love the Jazz. I love all my fans. I love the game of basketball. But if you’re rocking my jersey while we’re going for the title, do me a favor and don’t just shout out my name. If you’re rocking my jersey, shout out, ‘Justice for Breonna Taylor.’”
Taylor is the Black woman who was killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police on March 13. Mitchell, who played collegiately at the University of Louisville, is wearing “Say Her Name” on the back of his jersey during the NBA’s restart in Orlando as a tribute to Taylor and other women who have been victims of police brutality.
“As NBA players, I feel like we have a responsibility to the world during The Bubble, when all eyes are going to be on us,” Mitchell’s piece reads. “We can’t just serve as a distraction from reality. We have to keep our foot on the gas. We have to keep having uncomfortable conversations. Even if we’re hated for it by some people.”
Mitchell shared that while he was at Louisville, he and some teammates were pulled over by a white police officer.
“We all know how this can go,” the piece reads. “You have three or four young Black men getting pulled over in a nice car in a certain neighborhood, and immediately there’s a tension. You feel it in your chest. You’re thinking, Is this going to be the moment?”
Mitchell said the officer questioned the players and then said, “The only reason why I’m letting you go is because I love your coach (Rick Pitino).”
“I think about that all the time, just the way he said it,” the piece reads. “If we weren’t wearing that Cardinal on our chest, does it go a different way? All of a sudden, are we sitting on the curb? All of a sudden, are we getting cuffed? All of a sudden, is there a problem? Is there a threat? It can happen in an instant, and that’s the fear that we grow up with.”
Mitchell noted that the aim for players in speaking about racial justice while playing in the NBA’s bubble is not to bring attention to their own experiences as much as it is to give others a voice who aren’t in the spotlight.
“That’s what some people don’t get,” the piece reads. “This is not about LeBron James or Dame Lillard or James Harden and all the other guys around the league who have been out in the streets, who have been using their platform to bring awareness to the injustices that Black men and women have faced for decades.
“They’re not speaking for them. They’re speaking for the kids in the Bronx or in Chicago or in Compton who don’t have that platform.”
Before the Jazz played the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, Jazz coach Quin Snyder addressed Mitchell’s piece in his regular pregame meeting with media via Zoom.
Snyder said the past few months have made him more aware of the need to hear from players as they share experiences like the one Mitchell recounted at Louisville, and he praised his young star for being willing to speak his mind.
“I think more than anything, he just wants people to know that there’s more to him,” Snyder said, “and that doesn’t mean what we’ve seen in Donovan is any less special, but I think it means he’s even more special in that he’s been able and willing to articulate some of those things publicly.”