George Hill was supposed to be getting ready for the NBA playoffs when he found himself in an unexpected place urging the people around him to change the world. It's not often that NBA players give commencement addresses during the season. It's even less often that they're also members of the graduating class. But for one day in 2018, as his team was deep into a playoff run, basketball could wait. Hill was back at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to collect his degree, and he wanted to share a few lessons that he had learned in the 10 years since he left school."You can do whatever you choose to do," Hill said in his speech, "even when it's not expected of you." What he told his fellow graduates that day would resonate last week: His protest of an NBA playoff game in response to the police shooting of another Black man set into motion an extraordinary work stoppage across sports.
The Milwaukee Bucks' boycott was as unexpected as the man behind it. Hill doesn't fit the mold of a traditional leader. He is a quiet, private, veteran NBA role player who talks slowly and thinks deliberately. The most revealing thing about him is the way he spends his time away from the basketball court: Hill owns an 850-acre ranch in Texas with exotic animals ranging from antelopes to zebras. But in a league of gigantic personalities, at a time when sports have never been so political, Hill was the person responsible for starting a wave of disruptions that rippled across the country.
The most tumultuous week of the league's most turbulent season a series of events that included strategizing with former President Obama and rebuke from President Trump began when the Kenosha, Wis., police shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times on Aug. 23. Hill watched the short video clip of another Black man in Wisconsin. He was devastated. "We shouldn't have even came to this damn place, to be honest," he said last Monday. "I think coming here took all the focal points off what the issues are." It quickly became apparent that exasperated NBA players were overwhelmed by frustration and bubble fatigue. The fury that animated this summer's protests filled the bubble as teams openly considered an improbable possibility: a boycott.
They didn't realize that Hill had the same idea. He woke up Wednesday feeling disgusted and feeling like he wasn't going to play. He confided in Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer that morning but deliberately waited to inform his teammates. They found out when the game was 20 minutes away. With the clock ticking down, as the Orlando Magic went through warm-ups, something remarkable was happening inside the Bucks' locker room. Hill talked. The Bucks listened. Sterling Brown, the son of a police officer who has sued the city of Milwaukee for alleged police misconduct, said he would sit with his teammate. Antetokounmpo made the call for the whole team. They would not be taking the court. "None of those guys knew," Hill said. "But all those guys stood by my side." Hill took a big risk in deciding not to play. The Bucks, the NBA and much of the sports world followed.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-hill-milwaukee-bucks-nba-boycott-kenosha-shooting-11598947657
The Milwaukee Bucks' boycott was as unexpected as the man behind it. Hill doesn't fit the mold of a traditional leader. He is a quiet, private, veteran NBA role player who talks slowly and thinks deliberately. The most revealing thing about him is the way he spends his time away from the basketball court: Hill owns an 850-acre ranch in Texas with exotic animals ranging from antelopes to zebras. But in a league of gigantic personalities, at a time when sports have never been so political, Hill was the person responsible for starting a wave of disruptions that rippled across the country.
The most tumultuous week of the league's most turbulent season a series of events that included strategizing with former President Obama and rebuke from President Trump began when the Kenosha, Wis., police shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times on Aug. 23. Hill watched the short video clip of another Black man in Wisconsin. He was devastated. "We shouldn't have even came to this damn place, to be honest," he said last Monday. "I think coming here took all the focal points off what the issues are." It quickly became apparent that exasperated NBA players were overwhelmed by frustration and bubble fatigue. The fury that animated this summer's protests filled the bubble as teams openly considered an improbable possibility: a boycott.
They didn't realize that Hill had the same idea. He woke up Wednesday feeling disgusted and feeling like he wasn't going to play. He confided in Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer that morning but deliberately waited to inform his teammates. They found out when the game was 20 minutes away. With the clock ticking down, as the Orlando Magic went through warm-ups, something remarkable was happening inside the Bucks' locker room. Hill talked. The Bucks listened. Sterling Brown, the son of a police officer who has sued the city of Milwaukee for alleged police misconduct, said he would sit with his teammate. Antetokounmpo made the call for the whole team. They would not be taking the court. "None of those guys knew," Hill said. "But all those guys stood by my side." Hill took a big risk in deciding not to play. The Bucks, the NBA and much of the sports world followed.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-hill-milwaukee-bucks-nba-boycott-kenosha-shooting-11598947657
