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Sarah Todd
Guest
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — On Tuesday after the Denver Nuggets beat the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of the first-round of the playoffs, cutting the Jazz’s lead to 3-2 in the series, Donovan Mitchell spoke about the recent officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
Here are his comments in full:
“We all saw the video of the cops shooting Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. I just want to say that first off, that I tweeted something that was the truth. This is bigger than just the game, not taking anything from the game, but this is life.
“There are times, a lot of times, where we say we don’t feel safe. It doesn’t matter how much money, doesn’t matter who you are. And our voices that we use down here, I think it’s important to continue to use our voices.” — Donovan Mitchell
“There are times, a lot of times, where we say we don’t feel safe. It doesn’t matter how much money, doesn’t matter who you are. And our voices that we use down here, I think it’s important to continue to use our voices.
“It’s inexcusable to see stuff like that. The common excuse is that he shouldn’t have walked away, he shouldn’t have not listened to the cops. That doesn’t deserve for you to be shot in the back, shot seven times. That’s just inexcusable. That’s really what we should focus on, what we need to focus on, because the point of us coming down here was to create change and I feel like we’re doing a good job of that but obviously not good enough.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but this is disgusting. I really don’t know how else to describe it.
“As an African American male, and having my sister and mom and my dad and my friends and family not know, when does it stop? When do we feel comfortable? When do we feel safe?
“I’m not saying don’t arrest a guy if he’s a criminal but man, he doesn’t deserve to be shot, point blank, grabbing his shirt, seven times. It looked like he was just shot on the street, it didn’t even look like it was an officer shooting and that’s what’s even crazier about it.
“I just wanted to get that off my chest. It’s really disappointing. It’s tough, man. I just want this (expletive) to stop, to be completely honest with you. That’s that.”
On Monday, following Jazz practice, head coach Quin Snyder also shared his thoughts on the situation.
“I want to touch briefly on what happen in Wisconsin with Jacob Blake,” Snyder said. “I’ve been talking with our team, and I’m at a loss for words at how disheartening what’s happened is. Also, just again, talking to our group, how proud I am of our group and their attempts down here to address these issues, peacefully and productively, whether it be with posts or in various other ways that they’re trying to bring attention to this. As I said, I’m at a loss, but I think that it’s important for us to acknowledge that it’s going on and hopefully figure out some way to address it and create some lasting change.”
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