New Orleans Pelicans: How Players Are Using Their Voices

 New Orleans Pelicans players are continuing to fight for social change

As easy as it would be to just write another piece about the New Orleans Pelicans offseason right now, it would be wrong. After seeing the NBA postpone their playoffs in protest of the horrendous atrocity against Jacob Blake, the right thing to do is take a moment to highlight some of the things the Pelicans organization is doing to promote social change.

Now I know some of you have your own beliefs on this matter, and some of you are thinking “stick to sports”, that’s fine. My only thought in writing this is not to be political or attack anyone else’s beliefs but to do what the NBA players want to see us do which is amplify their voices.

That’s important to NBA players because they know that some people only read sports blogs like this one, so if I can spread the message they’re trying to send on this platform then there’s a chance that message meets more people.

If this is something that doesn’t interest you for whatever reason, I can see where you’re coming from but I encourage you to give it a chance to hear some of the messages the New Orleans Pelicans organization wants you to hear.

How The New Orleans Pelicans organization is promoting change

Just because the New Orleans Pelicans organization is no longer in the NBA bubble doesn’t mean that they aren’t promoting change as well. The team made that very clear with their own potent statement last night.

In their statement above, the team condemned racial injustices while noting that they are committed to creating positive change in the New Orleans community. This statement is only the start as actions from players are following.

We recently covered Jrue Holiday’s importance to the New Orleans Pelicans as a community leader and for his contributions to the Black Lives Matter movement and he hasn’t stopped being active. Not only has Jrue Holiday been donating money to the movement and areas New Orleans but he’s starting to use his voice now too.

Over the past couple of days, Holiday has been a fixture on Twitter and Instagram sharing messages from his fellow NBA players in the bubble along with information on how others can donate and make positive changes. He’s not the only one either.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker has followed Holiday’s lead. He posts his own opinions on the things happening in the country regularly and has also been sharing information for how others can get involved. What this is doing is building a web where New Orleans Pelicans players are reaching a massive audience to raise awareness of the cause.

Josh Hart added his own thoughts with a simple yet poignant message: WE WANT CHANGE!!

On a different side of things, Lonzo Ball has been active in supporting black-owned businesses. He is consistently shouting them out on social media and even purchasing their products for himself. In doing this he’s hoping to help provide economic growth for the black community.

Then there’s been team vice president David Griffin who has done all he can to be an ally. Griffin has applauded his players’ work in the community and shared commentary from himself and coaches on how to promote social change.

None of this even includes the organization’s participation in peaceful marches in New Orleans earlier in the summer.

The New Orleans Pelicans are not in the bubble right now but expect them to continue doing stuff like this and much more in the coming days.

Why we should be listening to the New Orleans Pelicans

The things I have just mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg to how active New Orleans Pelicans players are in their community and as more developments and information comes out in the next few days we should continue to listen to our players.

What these guys are doing right now is admirable and it’s giving us all the opportunity to reflect and make changes. They’re not trying to attack or bring anyone down but promote positivity in creating a better world for everyone and that’s a powerful statement.

We should listen to these players more in the next coming days because what they want more than anything is for their message to be heard and become an inspiration to others.