Northern Colorado Basketball Players, Coaches Show Support For Social Justice
WELD COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - The men's basketball team at the University of Northern Colorado created a video which is gaining a lot of interest. The video talks about race relations in America.
"We stand for our community. We stand for our brothers and our sisters. We stand for our teammates, we stand together because Black lives matter," a player says in the video.
We Stand Together. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/4FhoeSBFPe
— UNC Men's Basketball (@UNC_BearsMBB) September 9, 2020
Students and coaches participated in the video. Eleven of UNC's 16 players are Black.
"The discussions are a lot more frequent now than they used to be, and really our job as coaches is not this, not the X's and O's, we always talk about it's building champions for life," said Head Coach Steve Smiley. "We don't want it to be political. We just want, getting out of it, being supportive of our players. I think that's the biggest thing."
Smiley says they began talking about doing something as players shared their experiences this summer.
"I've been asked if I'm a gang member before, a drug dealer, just simple things like that, but they don't know my story. They don't know where I come from. They don't know I'm a division one athlete, but it's just the color of your skin, that's all it is," said Rodrick McCobb.
The team says the video is not anti-police or political, but they hope it is thought provoking. They add they support the Black Lives Matter movement and want their voices to be heard as part of the discussion about social justice in America.
"I want you to feel what I feel, but you can't really feel what I feel, but I can tell you and you can hear me out," said McCobb. "That's all I want is people to hear us out, actually believe us, and have our back."