Following a 103-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers drew parallels between his team deciding to take a knee during the national anthem and the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
“How long do you think the national anthem lasted?” he asked members of the media. “Two minutes? So the hardest thing that happened to me in the game today was kneeling for two minutes. My knee was hurting! In the middle of it I’m thinking, ‘In two minutes my knee is hurting, yet there is a guy that had his knee on someone’s neck for eight minutes.
“Think about that. The national anthem took two minutes. There were guys who needed towels and things to get under their knees. And yet, someone kneeled on another human being’s neck for eight minutes. That’s nuts when you think about it.”
As we reported at The Root, on May 26, four Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd were relieved of duty after an investigation was launched by the FBI.
During Floyd’s arrest, which civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump called “abusive, excessive and inhumane,” officer Derek Chauvin was found to have kneeled on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. He was subsequently charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Shoutout to Doc Rivers for keeping proper perspective as he pursues the Clippers’ first NBA title.
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