Brad Stevens Says Letter to Celtics Players Was to Let Them Know 'I'm with Them'

Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said he wrote a letter to the team over the weekend to express his support as protests take place around the United States in response to the killing of George Floyd.

Many Celtics players have joined in those protests, and Stevens said he wanted them to know "I'm with them" (h/t Tim Bontemps of ESPN):

"I wrote a letter to our guys this weekend and it took me awhile to put down exactly what I wanted to say. But I think the thing I wanted them to know, is every decent person is hurting. Every decent person feels the pain of the African American community. But I also don't want to pretend that I know the exact, distinct pain.

"What I wanted them to know is that I'm with them. I thought that was really important. It's so, so great to see so many of the guys so active. ... I've talked to a lot of guys. Everybody's hurting. Let's put it that way. The leadership they've shown is terrific. And hopefully the most important thing is we can have short-term healing, and we can have near-term gains, and we can have long-term sustainable action that creates change."

Celtics guard Jaylen Brown traveled to Atlanta to join the protests there, while Marcus Smart and Enes Kanter joined the protests in Boston. Stevens spoke highly of Brown and the impact he continues to have off the court:

"Jaylen's greatest impact, as good as he is in basketball, won't be in basketball. He's a special guy. He's a special leader. He's smart, but he has courage. He's got a lot of great stuff to him. I think we recognized that when we drafted him, but he has been even more unbelievable every day, every year.

"I've always personally really enjoyed listening to him and talking to him about things outside of basketball. He told me he was going down there on Thursday and I obviously knew ... I'm certainly not surprised by him taking a leadership role. That's who he is."

NBA players, coaches and front-office personnel have joined in protests around the nation or lent their voices online.

Floyd was killed May 25 after since-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while arresting him. Chauvin was eventually arrested himself and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, while the three other officers at the scene—Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas K. Lane—were also fired but have not yet been charged with a crime.