Image Source: Wilfredo Lee
The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics took a moment of silence before Game 5 for those who lost their lives in the recent Texas shooting. The two teams played incredibly close to one another — while rivals on the court, they found common ground to empathize with the families of the 19 children and two adults who died in the incident.
Fans cheered and nodded in agreement n when an announcer told the public after the silence, “The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 to leave a message demanding their support for common sense gun laws. You can also make change at the ballot box.”
Finishing with a 3-2 lead against the Heat, Boston won Game 5, 93 – 80. The duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum contributed 47 points to their team’s victory — Brown with 25 and Tatum with 22.
In an interview, Tatum said, “Obviously, everybody says their prayers and condolences to the families of those kids, but at some point, that does get tiring of going through the same process, and the same result keeps happening over and over again.”
The recent shooting at an elementary school in Texas is just the second mass killing of two people within less than two weeks.
“I’m a basketball player, I don’t have a lot of answers,” Tatum added. “But something does have to change in that regard because obviously things like this, unfortunately, continue to happen.”
Meanwhile, Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat head coach, commented on the “devastating” news. “It just continues to happen. I know everybody is saying that there needs to be a call to action, and I think what this is forcing people to do is just to figure it out, including myself.”
“We don’t have the answers, but we want to be heard to be able to force change to the people that can actually make the change.”
In light of the event, President Joe Biden has called on Congress to take action and provide laws that will prevent the future shooting from happening.
“Our prayer tonight is those parents lying in bed trying to figure out, will I be able to sleep again? What do I say to my other children? What happens tomorrow?” the President said.
Vice President Kamala Harris also felt the same. “As a nation, we have to have the courage to take action and understand the nexus between what makes for reasonable and sensible public policy to ensure something like this never happens again.”
Other members of the sports community also shared their sentiments. Dave Roberts, the LA Dodgers manager, said, “To have parents afraid to send their kids to schools, kids being afraid to go to school for their health and well-being, it’s just sad beyond measure.”
