I would love for this trade, but not for basketball reasons, but it would be very interesting to see how Russell Westbrook’s personality would mesh in Utah.
Donovan Mitchell already spoke on some of the issues he had there.
It’s no secret there’s a lot of stuff that I dealt with being in Utah off the floor. If I’m being honest with you, I never really said this, but it was draining. It was just draining on my energy just because you can’t sit in your room and cheer for me and then do all these different things. I’m not saying specifically every fan, but I just feel like it was a lot of things. A [Utah] state senator [Stuart Adams] saying I need to get educated on my own Black history. Seeing Black kids getting bullied because of their skin color. Seeing a little girl [Isabella Tichenor] hang herself because she’s being bullied.
Man, it was just one thing after another. And I will say, it’s not the only place it happens. But for me, I’m continuing to be an advocate for [racial equality] and to receive the amount of pushback I got over the years, it was a lot.
But as far as Utah, it became a lot to have to deal with on a nightly basis. I got pulled over once. I got an attitude from a cop until I gave him my ID. And that forever made me wonder what happens to the young Black kid in Utah that doesn’t have that power to just be like, ‘This is who I am.’ And that was one of the things for me that I took to heart.
Let’s not forget that Russ has a history with the Jazz fans.
That history is not good.
Westbrook is minding his business and you have this “fan” and I use the term very lightly calling him a boy. Russ tells him that isn’t cool only to have the fan say it again.
Then when Westbrook asks security to handle it they don’t really do anything. Very similar situation to what happened to Westbrook last night.
Imagine getting racist stuff said to you all the time (don’t be naive, white people know when you call a black man a boy what that means), you would be prone to snap at some point as well.
Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report is starting the Jazz, and the Lakers have had preliminary talks about a trade. We will have to see what happens as the deadline approaches.
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