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Kings Wear Stephon Clark T-Shirts Before Game vs. Celtics
March 25, 2018
The Sacramento Kings wore T-shirts bearing the name of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by Sacramento police in his grandmother's backyard, prior to their game against the Boston Celtics at Golden 1 Center on Sunday.
The shirts read "Accountability" and "We are one" on the front with a hashtag of Clark's name on the back:
The team also aired a public service announcement in the first quarter featuring members of both teams:
Kings guard Garrett Temple told USA Today's Sam Amick that Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was a driving force behind crafting the message.
"Brad Stevens was real big," Temple said. "Right away, right after (Stevens) heard [owner] Vivek [Ranadive], he wanted to do whatever he could, and with his organization he wanted to do whatever he could to help and be in support of us. To have seven or eight of those guys come over from the (team) hotel (in Sacramento) and do that PSA (on Saturday) with us, that’s powerful. That shows the character of Brad, and then obviously the players on the team and that organization."
On Thursday, demonstrators protesting Clark's death blocked the entrance at Golden 1 Center. The Kings proceeded to lock the doors and squared off against the Atlanta Hawks in front of a sparse crowd.
Speaking to those in attendance after the game, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive offered a statement of support for the protestors.
"We recognize that it is not just business as usual, and we are going to work really hard to bring everybody together to make the world a better place, starting in our own community," he said. "We are going to work really hard to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again."
