D'Angelo Russell said he had time after Sunday's 96-88 victory over the Spurs.
At the end of his Zoom media availability, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic asked Russell about a tweet he made this week concerning the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. Russell's expletive-laden tweet expressed outrage at the government for allowing the mob to overtake the Capitol.
After getting the question, Russell said: "I'm not in any rush right now. I think it's the perfect time to do this. … I'd love to hear y'all's opinion on that and we can play tennis with that."
So Russell asked five of the media members who regularly cover the Wolves to share their perspective of the riot at the Capitol.
It was the kind of moment that could happen more organically when reporters and athletes share space in a locker room when there isn't a pandemic keeping those sides isolated. But Russell was happy to have a discussion via Zoom and listened to each reporter give his perspective and then offer his at the end. Here's what he said:
"We let that happen as a country, a higher power, whatever you want to say, we let that happen. It brought eyes to the unfairness of what we're living in this country. It just brought more eyes to it. I will say that with all this going on, it's triggered a lot of attention toward just this topic in general.
"It's allowing us to sit back and think about how we're going to respond to this as a nation, as an individual, as a teacher. Anything you do, your voice is going to matter. A lot of young kids nowadays, they probably won't see this and they probably won't understand what's going on, but it is a revolution. It is a change. It is something that, I feel that it can only go up from here. Being able to recognize what's right and what's wrong in these situations and see how people are taken advantage of is the wrong thing to do."
Players around the league have reacted to what they saw with Russell joining their chorus this week, a response that has grown louder in the NBA and WNBA since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
Russell is among those using his voice to speak out on these issues. He was on the front lines of his hometown in Louisville this summer when protests were happening in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor. He posted on Instagram his participation in the rallies and even addressed a crowd as someone a lot of people look up to in Louisville.
"Don't let off of it," Russell said in December when asked about his involvement in social justice. "Anytime we have a platform, keep raising that eyebrow to a lot of people that don't understand or are uneducated to the topic."
