"There’s something wrong with the system": Michael Malone wants change

Michael Malone is frustrated.

He’s outraged.

While watching TV Monday night he felt like he needed to get something off his chest.

“It was just eating at me,” Malone said. “I was angry.”

Malone called into Altitude Sports Radio Tuesday morning to continue a dialogue around the events of the last week. On May 25, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis by police officer Derek Chauvin. Since then, protests and marches in cities across the United States and in Denver in response to his death and the mistreatment of African Americans by police have rocked the country.

Malone had something he wanted to say.

Like many, he has been exposed to acts of racism before. Growing up in Queens, New York Malone was a part of a travel basketball team that ventured to the deep south, to New Orleans and Mississippi to play in tournaments. There, he saw teammates discriminated against because of the color of their skin.

Malone was chastised for fraternizing with his African American teammates. He watched as as an employee said only he and his white coach could enter a movie theater. His 11 black teammates couldn’t.

“That’s the 1980’s,” Malone said. “… It still exists.”

He along with many Americans are angry that nothing has changed. In 2014, Eric Garner yelled, “I can’t breathe” as he died at the hands of the New York Police Department. A few months later, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was holding a toy gun when he was shot by a police officer. In 2015, Freddie Gray mysteriously died in police custody. 

Marches were organized and smaller-scale protests took place in response to those incidents. When Colin Kaepernick began protesting police brutality against African Americans in 2016 the conversation was sparked again.

In response to those events, the Nuggets and teams throughout the NBA began to lock arms during the national anthem to show unity.

Eventually the movement faded.

That irks Malone.

“This cannot be issuing a statement. This cannot be us wearing a pin on our lapel when we start playing. We’ve done that. We’ve been there, we’ve done that. That has done nothing,” Malone said. “We have to dig a lot deeper. We have to get our players involved with the local police and I think every NBA head coach is trying to do the same thing with their team.”

A Saturday evening conference call organized by Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce between the NBA’s 30 head coaches could be the first step towards the league using their platform to elicit meaningful and lasting change.

Malone wants his players and staff involved too. He has had conversations with his assistant coaches and players over the last few days including Monte Morris, who Malone said experienced bouts with racism while growing up in Flint, Michigan.

Malone said the Nuggets are also actively trying to set up a town hall meeting with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the Denver police chief to engage their players on the matter. The Nuggets want their players to use their voice and get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations.

“This is bigger than basketball,” Malone said. “This is bigger than going to Orlando to play. I know that’s what we get paid to do. But because we get paid to do that, me as a coach, our players as professional athletes, we’re given a platform and we have to find a way to use that platform to bring about change.”

“It’s just repeating. It’s such a vicious, vicious cycle and I want to be a part of it in some small way to make sure that there are no more George Floyds, Breonna Taylors, Ahmaud Aubrey  and the countless victims that we don’t even know about prior to those people.”

Malone has a number of his family members who have worked in law enforcement. He nearly joined them before he was offered a job as an assistant coach at Providence College.

But he’s frustrated with the way that police departments continue to operate and that they haven’t changed their ways despite the fact that these incidents are continually caught on camera.

He wants change and he wants to do his part.

“You look at all these videos and you understand they’re not impacting the way we’re making our policies,” Malone said. “They’re not impacting the way we’re hiring people in the police department because the same things continue to happen. How can a police officer with 17, 18 complaints still be on the force sitting on a guy’s neck and killing him in Minneapolis? There’s something wrong with the system.”

“Doc Rivers said it the other day and I think it was a great point. Silence and inactivity can no longer be accepted. I’m not African American. I’m white. I don’t know what it’s like. I haven’t walked in the shoes. But I want to help.”