If I were a black veteran player for the Thunder there’s no way in hell I would want to play in Oklahoma City if I didn’t have to by the constraints of a contract. There’s no way I would insult my own integrity playing in a state which went by just under 70% for the racist Donald Trump. That would bother me.
So as we sit here today…Kevin is in Brooklyn, James and Russell are in Houston, PG and Patrick are in LA, Jerami is in Denver, Serge is in Toronto and the Thunder sit as a team staring oblivion in the eye for the next several years.
By the constraints of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement it is now apparent top level black NBA players don’t consider Oklahoma City and it’s regressive rural mentality as a landing spot beyond the rookie scale contract and the second contract in which teams still have the right to match offers.
I’ll go further, my grandson will be born in around two months. Would I want him to grow up in a culture which doesn’t respect the rights of all people?
No.
I thought the people in Oklahoma were better than this. I thought if nothing else there was an inherit decency here in spite of the obvious educational issues.
What we found out instead, no pun intended, was that two tax cuts trump anything attached to human decency. We found out in Oklahoma the people would overwhelmingly elect a pig if he gives them a little more money.
So as we sit here in Oklahoma City staring NBA oblivion in the face this basketball season with no Christmas Day game, no national television games, and not even sure to what degree the team will be tanking—perhaps all Oklahomans can reflect and search for their own better angels.
The color of one’s skin does not define their character.