Donovan Mitchell did not frame his response to the recent killings in Minnesota around politics or policy. Instead, the Cleveland Cavaliers star asked a simpler question. Why has violence like this started to feel normal?
Speaking after the Cavaliers’ game on Monday, Mitchell addressed the fatal shooting of local protestor Alex Pretti by an ICE officer, which followed the earlier killing of Renee Good in the same city. His message centred on empathy, not allegiance.
“It’s violence. Senseless violence,” Mitchell said.
“It’s one of those things where there’s a human element to all of this, right? We were there for the first incident, and then to see it happen again, it’s like it’s become the norm.
“It’s become something that, quite frankly, I don’t feel like any of us in here are like, ‘Man, that’s a normal thing.’ That shouldn’t be.”
‘Let’s be humans’
Mitchell explained that the proximity of the incident hit differently for the team. The Cavaliers were in Minnesota at the time and placed on lockdown at their hotel.
“We are in this bubble as NBA players; we’re removed,” he said. “But by the same token, being there in Minnesota when that happened, it really made you open your eyes ’cause you’re there. You feel it. It’s 10 minutes away. We were on lockdown in the hotel.
“You can only feel for the people of Minnesota, feel for the families. It’s just not right.”
As a vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, Mitchell has spoken publicly on social issues before. This time, he pushed back on what he described as attempts to reduce the situation to political camps.
“I see the ‘Oh, it’s the sides.’ Like, nah, it’s the human element,” he said. “It’s the human part that, I’m trying not to curse, that gets to me.
“There’s so much craziness, like, ‘Oh, it’s this. It’s that.’ It’s like, nah, let’s be humans. What about that?”
‘That can’t be who we are’
Mitchell also referenced another recent case involving five-year-old Liam Ramos, who was detained with his father and sent to a family detention facility in Texas while an asylum claim remains pending.
“I even saw the little kid,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know the full story, but I saw the little kid that was by his self. Like, what about the human side of that? That’s a child by itself, no parent.
“I feel like we lose that in all of this. That’s what’s alarming, disheartening for us.
“I have family who came to this country, and they fear for their lives, and they’re legal citizens,” he said. “Like, they fear.
“I don’t know the whole situation of the people that got murdered, but I do know this is BS,” Mitchell said. “It’s BS. That’s just been my standpoint on it.
“That can’t be who we are as a country, as a people.”
