Is the Sports World Finally Giving Up Its Right to Remain Silent?

After an ICE officer in Minneapolis shot Renee Good in the face, killing the legal observer and mother of three, the Minnesota Timberwolves organization called for a moment of silence before its Thursday night contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers. After two long seconds of silence, one fan howled, “Go home, ICE!” After a shocked moment, another Timberwolves supporter shouted, “Fuck ICE!” At that point, the Target Center arena exploded in anti-ICE cheers. It sounded as if star player “Ant” Edwards had just gone coast to coast for one of his flying dunks. Vice President JD Vance probably thinks all 20,000 people are being paid by George Soros, but the only people getting paid off in Minneapolis are ICE agents, those untrained modern-day slave catchers getting thousands of dollars in signing bonuses whether or not they can do a sit-up.

The next night, Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers addressed Good’s killing in his press conference, calling it “straight-up murder.” He then spoke at length about what ICE’s mission appears to be with racists like Donald Trump, Vance, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem at the controls, saying, “It’s clear to me we’re attacking brown people, and I just happen to be brown. And I don’t think it should just be brown people who are upset at this. I think we all have to be.”

The NBA coaches were not done. Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors said, “It’s shameful, really, that in our country we can have law-enforcement officers who commit murder and seemingly get away with it. It’s shameful that the government can come out and lie about what happened when there’s video and witnesses who have all come out and disputed what the government is saying… So it’s terrible, terribly sad for her family, and for her, and that city, and I’m glad the Timberwolves came out and expressed that sadness.”

A small handful of athletes also took to social media, including Minnesota Lynx forward  Napheesa Collier, to express their horror about what took place, although their posts have disappeared or been taken down.

Then sports opinionist Nick Wright in a 17-minute monologue on his show—and people should listen to the entire thing, said in part, “Are we OK that we currently live in a world where we can see a 37-year-old mother shot dead in the street, and we know when we see it, that some people, including some of the most powerful people, will not only justify it but try to convince you that you didn’t see what you just saw?”

I am aware that a howl of anger from one set of sports fans, two coaches, a commentator, and sprinkling of social-media posts does not sound like much amid the enormity of the injustice that happened less than three miles from the Timberwolves’ and Lynx’s arena. But it also should not be dismissed. I wrote two weeks ago that 2025 marked the low point of sports activism. Given the tumult of violence that engulfed this country under year one of Trump’s second term, this quietude from the otherwise boisterous world of sports was gutting. Like the law firms, the universities, and whatever the hell CBS News has become under the leadership of Vichy pundit Bari Weiss and walking blooper Tony Doukopil, sports looked like another industry in a mire of cowardly compliance and complicity with an authoritarian regime.

To see even a ray of light emerge from the sports world is heartening. During the Black Lives Matter movement from 2014-2020, sports was at the front lines of the fight for racial justice, especially at the high-school level. As the movement—like all movements—weathered ups and downs, the sports world consistently had players raising their fists, boycotting contests, or taking a knee during the anthem—as inspired by then 49ers, now blackballed quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The playing field was a central place for organizing and visible resistance. I charted this in a book called The Kaepernick Effect. I am still proud of that work as it documents and celebrates something that many have dutifully thrown down the memory hole: a period in sports history at odds with today’s cavalcade of right-wing sports yappers, ex-jocks, and gambling hucksters. Last week, before Good’s body was even cold, Stephen A. Smith made unconscionable comments, calling her killing “completely justified.”

I was wrong when I predicted that the Kaepernick effect would usher in a new era in sports. And yet as this administration continues to fight “the enemy within” (as Trump is fond of babbling between his addled moments)—maybe the sports world is waking up. People in the United States don’t need inspiration from sports—hundreds of thousands took to the streets this past weekend without any call from the sports world. But if the sports industry does get involved, it will mean that all those marching, chanting, and yelling “fuck ICE” will have new allies and amplifiers. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and those in the business of sports—that means athletes, their unions, and talking heads—can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines.