Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo had one message Monday night: ‘Justice for Breonna Taylor.’
Before a reporter could ask a question Monday night, Bam Adebayo had a message he wanted to deliver.
“Hold up. Hold on,” the Heat’s All-Star center said during a post-practice video conference call Monday. “Before we start this, I just want to say, this interview won’t go any further because all my answers will be about [Kentucky Attorney General] Daniel Cameron making a response to us about the injustice for Breonna Taylor and arresting those cops and holding them accountable.”
There were four questions asked during Adebayo’s session with the media — which lasted a little more than two minutes — and none of them were about Tuesday afternoon’s scrimmage between the Heat and Memphis Grizzlies. One question had to do with the importance of voting, the second focused on his platform to speak out on social justice issues, the third asked about the Heat’s plan to join the fight against racial injustice, and the fourth and final question had to do with his continued push to remain an active participant in the social justice conversation.
Three of the four answers came back to Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician who was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, in March after police officers executed a no-knock warrant related to a narcotics investigation and shot the 26-year-old, according to reports. No drugs were found.
“Because we aren’t getting justice for Breonna Taylor,” Adebayo said when asked why he continues to be vocal on the topic. “Daniel Cameron needs to respond to the NBA. And we’re going to keep holding him on that as an NBA family, for us to get justice for her.”
Several other NBA players participating in the season restart at Lake Buena Vista have used a similar approach during interviews recently.
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart answered every question during an interview with, “Justice for Breonna Taylor.” Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris used his entire media availability recently to call for the arrests of the police officers who were involved in Taylor’s death. And Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James used part of his time with reporters to demand justice for Taylor.
“I think they got to be very careful,” Charles Barkley said last week during an episode of TNT’s “The Arena” regarding players answering all questions with a social justice message. “Because if he’s just going to say, ‘That’s going to be my answer to every question,’ [the media is] going to stop talking to him. You can do both. These guys have a job to do. Once basketball starts, they’re going to ask, ‘What happened in this game? What happened here?’ If he’s going to say, ‘I’m not answering any questions. I’m just going to say, justice for Breonna Taylor.’ The guy is going to say, ‘Well, why am I going to come talk to you every day?’”
Retired Heat star Dwyane Wade responded to Barkley with a possible solution.
“You know one thing you can do,” Wade said to Barkley on “The Arena.” “When you sit down at the press table, you can start. Before they ask you any questions, you can actually start and say what you want to say first. Just like the coaches do. When coaches go to the press table, they sit and they say what they want to say. So if you want to say something ... you can start it off and have a message before you answer the questions about basketball. It’s give and take.”
On Monday, Adebayo was determined to get his message across. And he was successful.
“I feel like I’ve built a big enough platform and still think I’m building my platform for us to get justice for Breonna Taylor,” said Adebayo, who chose the social justice message of Black Lives Matter to wear on the back of his jersey when the season resumes.
“It’s time to drown out the hate,” Adebayo said last week. “I feel like at the end of the day, they have to let us be. And for us to do that, we’ve got to keep talking about it. We call it a lifestyle, a lifestyle of being Black. It’s difficult in this world and on this earth. So we’re trying to make a change.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 9:37 AM.
