Racial Justice

Brad Stevens calls Breonna Taylor grand jury decision ‘demoralizing news’

Stevens said he felt the news was a "setback" to trying to create change across the country.

By Conor Roche

September 23, 2020

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NBA players didn’t get the news that they were hoping to hear Wednesday afternoon.

A grand jury indicted just one of the three police officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor, with the lone charge being wanton endangerment for the actions from one of the officers that led to a near-death situation in a separate apartment.

The death of Taylor was one of the inspirations for players having social justice messages on the back of their jerseys when the NBA restarted its season.

Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said in agreement with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr that the grand jury’s decision was “demoralizing news.”

“I think that the idea of just going into that apartment doesn’t make any sense,” Stevens told reporters prior to the Celtics’ Game 4 against the Heat. “And to have 15 rounds of gun fire fired, five of which hit her, and there to be wanton endangerment – which I didn’t know existed before today – as the charge. Yeah, I mean, it’s tough.”

Stevens said he felt the news was a “setback” to trying to create change across the country.

“I think at the end of the day there’s been a call across the country, rightfully so, for more transparency, more accountability, just a better community relationship,” Stevens said. “Obviously this feels like a setback to that.

“At the same time, I guess the other side is you see a lot of cities, a lot of places, really taking steps that should have been taken a long time ago, but at least being taken now, whether it’s meeting the initiatives of the 8 Can’t Wait, committing to civilian review boards, better transparency and data, diversifying the police force even more to match the neighborhood, whatever the case may be. This doesn’t feel good today.”

Stevens said that he sent a message out to his team following the announcement, offering to listen to anyone if they had something they wanted to say.

“I just sent them a text mid-day, because everybody’s got their own thing that they do during the day of the game,” Stevens said. “And I just said if you need somebody to vent to, if you need somebody to talk to, or if you want to call or get me in person at the gym, feel free.”