Though the sports world has been forced to come to grips with racism and police brutality amid the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer, North Carolina Central men’s basketball coach LeVelle Moton says his white colleague have not done enough.
“The reality is a lot of these coaches have been able to create generational wealth,” Moton said Sunday on ESPN Radio’s Sunday Morning. “Their grandkids’ kids are gonna be able to live a prosperous life because athletes who were the complexion of George Floyd were able to run a football, throw a football, shoot a basketball or whatever have you so they have been able to benefit from athletes that look like George Floyd and many more. But whenever people [who are] the complexion of George Floyd are killed, assassinated, murdered in the street in broad daylight, they’re silent.”
Moton, who has coached at NCCU for the last eleven seasons, was disappointed that notable white Power Five coaches in football and basketball have been hesitant to use their platform to publicly acknowledge the inequities black Americans face.
“I have a problem with [their silence] because it seems as if black lives matter to them whenever they can benefit from it or whenever they’re getting them first downs, catching an alley-oop or shooting a [3-pointer] or whatever,” Moton said. “When it’s time for humanity to speak up on behalf of the student-athlete, it’s silent, it’s crickets. And my problem is if the murdering of black Americans is too risky of an issue for you to stand up as a leader, then who are they really playing for?”
