French NBA player Victor Wembanyama said Tuesday, January 27, that he was “horrified” by the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti shot dead in Minneapolis by ICE officers during anti-immigration operations launched by Donald Trump.
“Every dayĀ IĀ wake upĀ andĀ seeĀ theĀ news, andĀ I’m horrified,” responded the San Antonio Spurs center when asked during his team’s training session. He called it “crazy that some people might make it seem like, or make it sound like itā€™s acceptable,” as some in the US government defended the agents involved.
The French star was nevertheless cautious: “I’m conscious also that saying everything that’s on my mind would have a cost that’s too great for me right now.”
“I know I’m a foreigner. I live in this country, and I have concerns for sure,” added Wembanyama, who said this partly explained his hesitancy to speak further on the subject.
‘The government must stop acting this way’
Guerschon Yabusele, French player for the New York Knicks and captain of the French national team, went even further, expressing his feelings on X (formerly Twitter) in response to these “tragic events.” “What’s happening is beyond comprehension,” he said. “We’re talking about murders here, these are serious matters. The situation must change, the government must stop operating in this way. I stand with Minnesota.”
Prominent during the Black Lives Matter protests during Trump’s first term, the NBA world had initially stayed relatively quiet about the situation in Minneapolis, with almost no reaction after the death, on January 7, of Renee Good, 37, who was killed by ICE gunfire in Minneapolis.
But the death on Saturday of Alex Pretti, also killed by gunfire from federal agents and whose death was widely shared in videos on social media, prompted a reaction from several major players, such as Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who said that the 37-year-old nurse “was murdered.”
“Hopefully, theĀ community comes togetherĀ and theĀ right decisionsĀ areĀ madeĀ so there’sĀ moreĀ of aĀ peaceful environmentĀ here,” said Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry on Sunday. That same day, the National Basketball Players Association released a statement expressing “solidarity with the people in Minnesota protesting and risking their lives to demand justice” after the deaths of Good and Pretti.
On the WNBA side, New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart held up a simple white sheet of paper in Miami on Sunday, on which she had written: “Abolish ICE.”