Kings Owner Vivek Ranadive on Stephon Clark Protests in Sacramento: 'Stunned'
Sam Amick
USA TODAY Sports
4:02 p.m. ET March 23, 2018
Demonstrators protested outside City Hall and disrupted the start of an NBA game in Sacramento, California, after police shot and killed an unarmed black man. Police say they feared Stephon Clark was holding a gun when they shot him on Sunday. AP
SACRAMENTO – When Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive sat with Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler in his owner’s suite at the Golden 1 Center hours before tipoff Thursday evening, it was business as usual.
This game between two lottery-bound teams had little meaning even before the latest intersection of sports and society would unfold, with only the fate of draft ping pong balls – and some good, old fashioned pride – in play. Little did they know how meaningless it would seem soon thereafter.
Four days after two Sacramento police officers shot and killed 22-year-old African-American Stephon Clark in south Sacramento after responding to a call about break-ins, hundreds of protesters had made their way from nearby Interstate 5 to the arena. Clark, a father of two who was in his grandparents’ backyard when he was shot at 20 times while unarmed, was suspected of breaking into three vehicles and a nearby home, according to Sacramento police.
With arms locked and all those signs of frustration held high, the protesters blocked the doors as fans tried to enter.
“I was pulled out of the dinner, and I was told what was happening (outside the arena),” Ranadive, who led the ownership group that bought the team in the summer of 2013 and opened the arena last season, told USA TODAY Sports. “And so, I went upstairs and I saw what was going on. I was obviously stunned.
"I saw the crowd outside. I saw the police standing there. And I had different, complex emotions, because I have boys. I have a boy right now, actually, in the military (his 30-year-old son, Andre, is in the Army). And I have young boys, and the thought that your boy could be out in the yard and somebody shoots him, how horrific is that?”
While Ranadive said that the NBA made the decision to not cancel the game, the Kings decided to shut down their arena doors as a way of maintaining the peace and respecting the protest. And so, with longtime radio man Gary Gerould calling the Kings’ 105-90 win in relative silence and the voice of announcer Scott Moak bouncing off all those empty seats, the action ensued.
The Kings announced that all the fans who were turned away – as many as 15,000 by some unofficial estimates inside the building that holds 17,608 – will receive refunds. Fans who made it inside were given free food and non-alcoholic beverages.
“There’s obviously never a right decision in this type of situation, and on the one hand there’s been a life lost and you can’t just go about life in terms of it being business as usual, because it really isn’t,” Ranadive explained. “A young man has been killed under these circumstances. But then on the other hand, you think that maybe this is an opportunity to bring people together.”
By the time the night was over, the oft-criticized owner had done just that.
His postgame speech – Ranadive with the microphone at center court, surrounded by players, front office executives and the team’s coaching staff – struck all the right chords at the most sensitive of times. He expressed sympathy for Clark’s family, then shared his view about the value of peaceful protest and the need for the community to band together.
But Ranadive hadn’t done this alone.
He consulted his players about the message, with veterans like Vince Carter, Garrett Temple, Iman Shumpert and others weighing in as they all discussed the right tact to take.
The decision? Closed doors and open hearts.
“It was a combination of our veteran players and people in our front office,” Ranadive said. “It was just the sentiment that this was a big deal. It wasn’t even clear that the game was going to happen tonight, but we went ahead and played, and so I just said, ‘Yeah, absolutely, I will happily share some thoughts.’ I just kind of spoke from the heart, and shared what I thought.”
The Kings have no shortage of players who have already been active on this front, none moreso than Temple. The 31-year-old has focused on bridging the gap between police officers and young people in the community, hosting several townhall-style meetings at inner city Sacramento schools and churches.
“I 100 percent agree with the protest outside,” Temple, who did not play because of an ankle injury, said afterward. “If I didn’t have a job to do I’d probably be out there with them peacefully protesting because what’s going on has to stop. It has to stop.”
As the protest commenced outside and the ball started to bounce inside, the Black Lives Matter conversation even continued on the court.
“We had conversations throughout the game about it,” the 41-year-old Carter said. “And when I say we, I mean both teams, with each other. We have a game to play. We have a job to do, but (the protest) didn’t go unnoticed.
“That’s what it’s all about, is raising awareness, because we know it was going to be talked about and we know the game’s played but the conversation for both teams, it wasn’t just before the game. It was throughout the game. It was pretty neat.”
Ranadive, like so many others, won’t soon forget the message that was sent.
“We have just an amazing set of players, and we have an amazing community here, and in many ways I’ve always said that we created kind of the communal fireplace over here,” Ranadive said.
“This is kind of the gathering place, and this is where people want to express their feelings, so I thought it’d be appropriate to show unity and show sympathy and love for the family, and show that we recognize that it’s a privilege to have this platform but it’s also a responsibility.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick
USA TODAY Sports
4:02 p.m. ET March 23, 2018
Demonstrators protested outside City Hall and disrupted the start of an NBA game in Sacramento, California, after police shot and killed an unarmed black man. Police say they feared Stephon Clark was holding a gun when they shot him on Sunday. AP
SACRAMENTO – When Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive sat with Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler in his owner’s suite at the Golden 1 Center hours before tipoff Thursday evening, it was business as usual.
This game between two lottery-bound teams had little meaning even before the latest intersection of sports and society would unfold, with only the fate of draft ping pong balls – and some good, old fashioned pride – in play. Little did they know how meaningless it would seem soon thereafter.
Four days after two Sacramento police officers shot and killed 22-year-old African-American Stephon Clark in south Sacramento after responding to a call about break-ins, hundreds of protesters had made their way from nearby Interstate 5 to the arena. Clark, a father of two who was in his grandparents’ backyard when he was shot at 20 times while unarmed, was suspected of breaking into three vehicles and a nearby home, according to Sacramento police.
With arms locked and all those signs of frustration held high, the protesters blocked the doors as fans tried to enter.
“I was pulled out of the dinner, and I was told what was happening (outside the arena),” Ranadive, who led the ownership group that bought the team in the summer of 2013 and opened the arena last season, told USA TODAY Sports. “And so, I went upstairs and I saw what was going on. I was obviously stunned.
"I saw the crowd outside. I saw the police standing there. And I had different, complex emotions, because I have boys. I have a boy right now, actually, in the military (his 30-year-old son, Andre, is in the Army). And I have young boys, and the thought that your boy could be out in the yard and somebody shoots him, how horrific is that?”
While Ranadive said that the NBA made the decision to not cancel the game, the Kings decided to shut down their arena doors as a way of maintaining the peace and respecting the protest. And so, with longtime radio man Gary Gerould calling the Kings’ 105-90 win in relative silence and the voice of announcer Scott Moak bouncing off all those empty seats, the action ensued.
The Kings announced that all the fans who were turned away – as many as 15,000 by some unofficial estimates inside the building that holds 17,608 – will receive refunds. Fans who made it inside were given free food and non-alcoholic beverages.
“There’s obviously never a right decision in this type of situation, and on the one hand there’s been a life lost and you can’t just go about life in terms of it being business as usual, because it really isn’t,” Ranadive explained. “A young man has been killed under these circumstances. But then on the other hand, you think that maybe this is an opportunity to bring people together.”
By the time the night was over, the oft-criticized owner had done just that.
His postgame speech – Ranadive with the microphone at center court, surrounded by players, front office executives and the team’s coaching staff – struck all the right chords at the most sensitive of times. He expressed sympathy for Clark’s family, then shared his view about the value of peaceful protest and the need for the community to band together.
But Ranadive hadn’t done this alone.
He consulted his players about the message, with veterans like Vince Carter, Garrett Temple, Iman Shumpert and others weighing in as they all discussed the right tact to take.
The decision? Closed doors and open hearts.
“It was a combination of our veteran players and people in our front office,” Ranadive said. “It was just the sentiment that this was a big deal. It wasn’t even clear that the game was going to happen tonight, but we went ahead and played, and so I just said, ‘Yeah, absolutely, I will happily share some thoughts.’ I just kind of spoke from the heart, and shared what I thought.”
The Kings have no shortage of players who have already been active on this front, none moreso than Temple. The 31-year-old has focused on bridging the gap between police officers and young people in the community, hosting several townhall-style meetings at inner city Sacramento schools and churches.
“I 100 percent agree with the protest outside,” Temple, who did not play because of an ankle injury, said afterward. “If I didn’t have a job to do I’d probably be out there with them peacefully protesting because what’s going on has to stop. It has to stop.”
As the protest commenced outside and the ball started to bounce inside, the Black Lives Matter conversation even continued on the court.
“We had conversations throughout the game about it,” the 41-year-old Carter said. “And when I say we, I mean both teams, with each other. We have a game to play. We have a job to do, but (the protest) didn’t go unnoticed.
“That’s what it’s all about, is raising awareness, because we know it was going to be talked about and we know the game’s played but the conversation for both teams, it wasn’t just before the game. It was throughout the game. It was pretty neat.”
Ranadive, like so many others, won’t soon forget the message that was sent.
“We have just an amazing set of players, and we have an amazing community here, and in many ways I’ve always said that we created kind of the communal fireplace over here,” Ranadive said.
“This is kind of the gathering place, and this is where people want to express their feelings, so I thought it’d be appropriate to show unity and show sympathy and love for the family, and show that we recognize that it’s a privilege to have this platform but it’s also a responsibility.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick
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