The French basketball player, star of the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, spoke out following the death of a protester in Minneapolis, shot and killed by Donald Trump‘s anti-immigration police. With some caution.
NBA superstar at 22, French San Antonio Spurs basketball player Victor Wembanyama was questioned about American news haunted by the actions of ICE, Donald Trump’s anti-immigration police, notably deployed in Minneapolis. The capital of Minnesota was recently the scene of the death of Alex Pretti, an American nurse who was shot nine times by an ICE agent during a demonstration on Saturday January 24.
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“You know, the Spurs communications department tried to advise me, but I’m not going to sit here and come out with a politically correct speech” immediately warned Wembanyama, questioned after leaving his training in Texas. “Every day, I wake up, I watch the news, and I am horrified. I find it crazy that some people can give the impression, or suggest, that the murder of civilians can be acceptable” continued the French international, who also underlined the difficulty of taking a position on this subject given his status in American society and as a top athlete: “When I read the news, sometimes I ask myself very deep questions about my own life. But I am also aware that saying everything that I have in mind that the cost would be too high for me today, so I prefer not to go into too much detail.”
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A rare basketball player to take a position on the subject, Wembanyama was preceded by his compatriot Guershon Yabusele, playing for the Knicks in New York, who published a tweet on January 26, two days after the murder of Alex Pretti, in which he called “the government to stop behaving like this.”
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“I’m always proud of people who speak out, whatever the subject,” Wembanyama commented on Yabusele’s stance. “It requires courage, but it can also have a price. Everyone must decide the price they are willing to pay” he added, also saying he was “worried” about the situation in the United States.
