NBA legend Jordan speaks out, condemns US gun violence

Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan has spoken up against gun violence in the US, condemning racially related killings and the shooting of policemen. AP

LOS ANGELES, United States — Basketball icon Michael Jordan, long reluctant to speak out on social issues, on Monday condemned gun violence that has heightened racial tensions in America and pledged $2 million toward finding a solution.

“I know this country is better than that, and I can no longer stay silent,” Jordan said in a letter released via theundefeated.com, a website backed by ESPN.

It was a watershed moment for a superstar who throughout his playing career, in which he led the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association championships between 1991 and 1998, was criticized for his hesitance to wade in on politics.

A wave of police killings of African Americans and deadly attacks against police officers prompted his rare public stand.

“As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers,” he said.

“I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well.”

His father, James Jordan, was shot and killed in 1993 at a highway rest area, not long after his son led the Bulls to a third NBA title.

Jordan used the letter to announce grants of $1 million each to two organizations working to improve relations between law enforcement and the communities in which they work — the Institute for Community Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The first was launched in May by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, while the Legal Defense Fund was originally established in 1940 to work for civil rights as part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“Although I know these contributions alone are not enough to solve the problem, I hope the resources will help both organizations make a positive difference,” he said.

Activist athletes

Now the only African-American majority owner of an NBA club, the Charlotte Hornets, Jordan has joined a wave of social comment in US sports sparked by a spate of police shootings of unarmed black men — and shootings of police officers in Dallas, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Current NBA stars LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade opened the recent ESPYs sports awards show urging their peers to take the lead in combating racial injustice and gun violence.

And in April, when a North Carolina law seen as discriminatory to the LGBT community was pushing the NBA toward moving the 2017 All-Star Game from the Hornets’ arena, a move the league ultimately made, Jordan issued a statement saying the club was “opposed to discrimination in any form.”

The league made the decision official last week.

A Jordan spokeswoman told theundefeated.com that Jordan had resolved to speak out two weeks ago, but delayed his comments to avoid overshadowing the concerns of the lesbian, gay and transgender community over the All-Star Game.

His comments are a far cry from his past reticence.

He once famously said “Republicans buy sneakers, too” in explaining his reluctance to comment on thorny political issues.

In 2015, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took Jordan to task in a National Public Radio interview saying he “took commerce over conscience,” although Jordan has in fact quietly backed political candidates, including donating to the senatorial and presidential campaigns of Barack Obama.

Jordan was spurred to comment in 2014 when racially charged remarks by then-Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling rocked the NBA.

Jordan said he was “disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views.”