T-Wolves' Gersson Rosas Wants Tuesday's Nets Game to Serve as Social Justice Platform

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The Minnesota Timberwolves resumed play Tuesday a day after they postponed a game with the Brooklyn Nets following the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by police.

Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas explained the decision, saying he wanted to "give our guys a platform to show and say what they feel."

"We live here," he said (h/t Malika Andrews of ESPN). "This is our community. To be experiencing this again in a middle of a trial is something that's very emotional and overwhelming."

Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was killed Sunday in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park after officer Kim Potter shot him during a traffic stop. Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as "accidental." 

Both Potter and Gannon resigned Tuesday. 

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is currently on trial for the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after Chauvin held his knee on his neck for more than nine minutes in May 2020. 

Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash said he would be supportive of Monday's postponement, but he thought basketball was of little importance following Wright's shooting.

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"If we're not playing for the right reasons, that's 100% OK," Nash told reporters. "But what does it change if we play today or don't play today? Change needs to come -- meaningful change needs to come at some point. I think meaningful change is much, much deeper than a basketball game. Now, I'd be all for not playing today if there was a step-by-step, sort of procedural reasoning behind why." 

The Minnesota Twins, who postponed their game against the Boston Red Sox on Monday, also resumed play Tuesday, while the Minnesota Wild—who moved Monday's game to May 12—resume play Wednesday.