Don Harris posted a clip of Victor Wembanyama discussing the Minneapolis shootings on Facebook and watched his comments section turn into exactly what he feared it would become.
The News 4 San Antonio sports anchor and director watched more than 600 comments pile up under the post. He then went back to Facebook later that day and tried to sum up what he’d witnessed.
“I posted a 60 second soundbite from Victor on Minneapolis, and the feedback is beyond me,” Harris wrote. “It’s concerning, outrageous, disgusting, supportive, dismissive, divisive, encouraging, discouraging, vile, uplifting, ignorant, and enlightened. Such a disturbing example of how divided America is right now. It was simply one man giving his opinion. Quite honesty [sic] the best word to summarize the discourse is painful.”
The reaction validated everything Wembanyama said before he opened his mouth. He’d praised Guerschon Yabusele, his fellow Frenchman and Knicks forward, for speaking out Monday about Minneapolis. But Wembanyama warned that Yabusele’s words “might have some price right now” and that “each and every one of us has to decide the price we’re willing to pay.”
The price showed up in Harris’s comment section. People wrote that “a person who bounces a ball for a living” shouldn’t talk politics. They questioned what business a French citizen had criticizing American law enforcement. The attacks weren’t limited to his citizenship or profession, either.
Wembanyama addressed the murders of two people by federal agents in Minneapolis during immigration enforcement operations. Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot and killed when an ICE officer fired into her vehicle on Jan. 7. Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was killed by federal agents on Saturday. The Pretti killing sparked protests in freezing temperatures and led the NBA to postpone Saturday’s Timberwolves-Warriors game.
The Spurs star opened his remarks by acknowledging his PR team had advised him to deliver a politically correct statement. He didn’t exactly heed their advice.
“PR has tried, but I’m not gonna sit here and give some politically correct answer,” Wembanyama said after practice. “Every day I wake up, and I see the news, and I’m horrified. I think that it’s crazy that some people might make it seem like or make it sound like it’s acceptable — like, the murder of civilians, acceptable.”
That was enough to generate 600+ comments, most of them imploring him to shut up and dribble.
He wasn’t alone in speaking out. The National Basketball Players Association released a statement Sunday saying players “can no longer remain silent.” Steph Curry, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, and Karl-Anthony Towns have all addressed Minneapolis publicly. Tyrese Haliburton posted that Pretti was “murdered,” while Breanna Stewart held up an anti-ICE sign before a recent Unrivaled game.
But Wembanyama’s position is different. Those other players are American citizens. Their right to speak is protected. Wembanyama lives here on a visa that can be pulled for speech the administration doesn’t like. He plays in San Antonio, a military city with deep ties to federal law enforcement. He had every reason to stay silent.
He spoke anyway because he thought it mattered more than the risk.
“I read the news, and sometimes I’m asking very deep questions about my own life,” he said. “But I’m conscious also that saying everything that’s on my mind would have a cost that’s too great for me right now.”
He calculated the cost. He decided 60 seconds of carefully chosen words were worth it. He didn’t attack Trump, defend illegal immigration, or take political positions on enforcement tactics. He said civilian deaths shouldn’t be acceptable. That statement generated a Facebook war.
Harris told MySA he was disappointed that respectful discourse wasn’t happening under the post. He said he was “disturbed and saddened” that the conversation devolved into attacks on Wembanyama and fighting between people who disagreed. The clip racked up more than 50,000 views. What Harris hoped would spark discussion instead became exactly what Wembanyama warned about when he spoke to reporters earlier this week.