Chris Paul helped lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a critical win to even the series with the Houston Rockets. Yet immediately after the game, Paul didn’t care about what had just happened on the court. He wanted to talk about Jacob Blake and the importance of voting.
“I don’t know. That’s all good and well,” Paul said on TNT when asked about the late run. “I just want to send my prayers out to Jacob Blake and their family. The things that we decided to come down here to play for and said we’re going to speak on, the social injustice and the things that continue to happen to our people, is not right. It’s not right.”
Blake, a Black man, is in stable condition after he was shot in the back seven times by a white police officer as he tried to get into his car — where his three children were waiting in the backseat — on Sunday afternoon.
Paul went on to challenge his fellow NBA players and other athletes across the sports world.
“The win is good, but voting is real, I’m going to challenge all my NBA guys, other sports guys, let’s try to get our entire teams registered to vote. It’s a lot of stuff going on in the country. Sports is cool, it’s good and well. It’s how we take care of our families, but those are the real issues that we’ve got to start addressing.”