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SALT LAKE CITY — Kyle Korver wants you to know something about him.
Four years ago, he felt like he let his friend down. He felt he let his teammate down. And he even felt like he let himself down.
Current Utah Jazz player Thabo Sefolosha was arrested in New York, thrown in jail and left with a season-ending leg injury a few years ago when he played for the Atlanta Hawks. Korver’s initial thought about the incident, as he explained in a piece for Players’ Tribune, is one he hasn’t been able to shake since: “Well, if I’d been in Thabo’s shoes, out at a club late at night, the police wouldn’t have arrested me. Not unless I was doing something wrong.”
Months later, Sefolosha was found not guilty and settled with the city over the police department’s use of force against him. He wasn't doing anything wrong.
It was a thought of pure reflex for Korver and one that was brought up again last month when a Jazz fan yelled a racist comment at Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook.
This time, though, he recognized something he hadn’t before: He has the ability to opt into the conversation. But, because of the color of his skin, he can also opt out of it. He can stand as an ally with his teammates or he can stay silent and blend into the crowd. It was a realization of his own privilege.
But that realization wasn’t where it ended for Korver. He knows he has to do something about it.
“I don’t think I have all the answers yet,” Korver wrote, “but here are the ones that are starting to ring the most true: I have to continue to educate myself on the history of racism in America.
"I have to listen. I’ll say it again, because it’s that important. I have to listen. I have to support leaders who see racial justice as fundamental — as something that’s at the heart of nearly every major issue in our country today. And I have to support policies that do the same.
“I have to do my best to recognize when to get out of the way — in order to amplify the voices of marginalized groups that so often get lost. But maybe more than anything? I know that, as a white man, I have to hold my fellow white men accountable.”
.@utahjazz teammates @ThaboSefolosha, @EkpeUdoh, @GeorgesNiang20 and @KyleKorver open up in a powerful roundtable on racism and the @NBA. pic.twitter.com/8LGVohNvcJ
— The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) April 8, 2019
The altercation between Westbrook and the Utah fan was an ugly moment in Jazz history. But the Utah organization was quick in its response — and there was a reason for that: It listened to its players.
The organization listened to their hurt, to their frustration, to their disappointment and it knew something had to be done.
But the Jazz couldn’t just let the story go away.
Utah handed out a lifetime ban to the heckler and Jazz owner Gail Miller denounced racism and proclaimed there would be zero tolerance for it in her arena.
“I appreciate what they have done,” said Ekpe Udoh in a roundtable discussion posted by the Players’ Tribune. “It wasn't the first, may not be the last time, but they finally put their feet down.”
And with Korver’s piece, the Jazz and their players aren’t done responding to it either.
“The fact that inequality is built so deeply into so many of our most trusted institutions is wrong,” Korver wrote. “And I believe it’s the responsibility of anyone on the privileged end of those inequalities to help make things right.
"So if you don’t want to know anything about me, outside of basketball, then listen — I get it. But if you do want to know something? Know I believe that.”
