Jameer Nelson says "this all stems from racism" as politics collide with Nuggets Media Day

With protests taking place throughout last Sunday’s slate of games in the NFL, it’s just a matter of time before the NBA follows suit by sending some kind of message of their own.

At Monday’s media day, Denver Nuggets players, particularly Paul Millsap and Jameer Nelson — two veteran leaders — said that the team will do something to address the current discourse throughout the country as sports and politics continue to collide with one another.

“We haven’t had a chance to sit down and really talk about it,” Millsap said. “Whatever it is, we’re going to do it together and we’re going to do something that everybody on this team feels comfortable doing.”

Last Sunday, NFL teams across the league kneeled during the national anthem to protest controversial comments made by President Donald Trump at a rally in Alabama on Friday. Trump then rescinded the Golden State Warriors’ invitation to attend the White House to celebrate their 2017 NBA championship once word got out that the Warriors were thinking about not attending and LeBron James and other NBA stars have since responded and criticized the President’s rhetoric.

In order to address how his team will proceed, whether that comes in some form of protest or message, coach Michael Malone set up a committee made up of four players —  Nelson, Gary Harris, Millsap and Nikola Jokic — to form a better line of communication between himself and his players for when such a discussion around what message they want to send, takes place.

“This year I’m going to have a committee. I picked four players to be on that committee that I can go to at all times,” Malone said. “It might be basketball related or it might be what we’re dealing with right now outside the sports world with President Trump and everything else. And Jameer (Nelson), Paul (Millsap), Nikola (Jokic) and Gary (Harris) kind of make up my committee and I hit those guys up last night to kind of start the discussion. I want to hear what they have to say.

Unlike the NFL, the NBA has rules that prohibit players from kneeling during the national anthem. On page 61 of the league rulebook, it states that “players, coaches, and trainers are to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or foul line during the playing of the National Anthem.”

Whatever message the Nuggets plan to deliver, it will be unified, it will be clear and it will be something that involves every player on the roster.

“Unity is the most important thing, Millsap said. “We live in a society that’s not united.”

“Things need to change and sometimes things got to get really bad for things to change and I think it’s been really bad,” Millsap continued.

Once the Nuggets sit down and address how they want to approach the issue, which could come as soon as this week when the team is holding training camp at the University of Colorado – Boulder, the dialogue will be free-flowing and inclusive.

What Denver’s leadership council does realize is that as athletes, they have the ability to produce change. It’s not their responsibility, but they’re happy to do their part.

“We have to keep working as a whole. It’s not just on athletes to make a change. We are magnified because we’re athletes, we’re magnified because of social media. But everyone in this room has the same opportunity to change something that we have. So it doesn’t just fall on athletes. This all stems from racism. It’s on all of us.”

“It started from racism, it started form police brutality which has always been happening,” Nelson said. It’s happened for 100’s and 100’s of years, but the thing is social media gives it a bigger picture and it happens so quick one thing social media gives, and its unfortunately at times, it gives everybody a voice  everybody doesn’t need a voice.”

During the 2015-16 season, players violated league’s uniform rules by wearing “I Can’t Breathe” shirts in warm-ups in response to the police action-related death of Eric Garner. The players were not fined. Just this week, the Los Angeles Sparks walked off the floor before the National Anthem in game one of the WNBA Finals. The Minnesota Lynx, the Sparks’ opponent, stayed on the court and linked arms during the anthem.

As media days around the league play out Monday and preseason games tip-off next weekend, expect action from the Nuggets, and other teams around the league soon.

“One thing the NBA is all about is diversity and inclusion,” Malone said. “We respect all our players’ voices. We’re going to let them talk amongst themselves, let us know how they feel. The one thing I hope we can do is be unified in any statement that we want to make.”