Former NBA player JJ Redick was named head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers lastweek and NBA sportswriters are lamenting his lack of any coaching experience at any level.
But there might be a biger underlying problem. Is the coach a racist? Consider this tweet on X.com posted June 25.
Halleemah Nash,@halleemah
“For context, this was years ago and Im a believer that we all have space to grow- especially from our college level maturity,” she wrote. “We live in a world where these exchanges happen and the intersection of race and privilege and lack of accountability all collided w/that presser.”
Nash is a womanof intergity. Here is her bio.
Halleemah Nash is a speaker, author, and social entrepreneur operating as Founder of Rosecrans Ventures, a startup that provides coaching and career readiness to underrepresented Gen Z talent.
Halleemah has led several scale projects as Executive Director at iMentor, Executive Director of iF Charities, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Chicago Housing Authority, Youth Pastor at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, and Community Relations Manager at The Chicago Bulls. As a consultant, she has developed and executed projects for Nike, the Chicago Blackhawks, The City of Compton Mayor’s Office, United Nations, Morgan Stanley, The City of Compton, Northwestern University, and celebrity brands Kobe Bryant, Common, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Nipsey Hussle, and Kendrick Lamar. In her 12+ years of social impact work she has created opportunities for over 11,000 young people in 4 continents, 7 countries, and 9 states.
Across portfolios she has successfully sourced, coached, and placed Gen Z, young people of color in c-suite internships in the Chicago, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles with employment partners including Chicago Public Schools Office of the CEO, AT&T, United Airlines, Facebook, Heitman, JPMorgan Chase, Art Institute of Chicago, Google, Heitman, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Halleemah Nash is a proud product of Compton, California – a city that has greatly shaped her ambition, values, and interest in reaching back as she climbs. She is a first-generation college graduate who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Howard University, and a Master of Divinity and Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University.
The post was brave and garnered responses like: “A lot of people are too young to remember JJ at Duke but those who can, probably aren’t too shocked by this story”
And..
“Interesting how many people, including members of the black community, are pushing back on Halleemah. Why would you doubt the word of any person, but particularly a credible black woman, as she shares her lived experience? I don’t follow sports and I know nothing about this situation. But I do know one thing. If I as a Hispanic woman made myself vulnerable enough to tell the whole world my personal experience of a discriminatory encounter, you better believe I’d be taking notice of who accused me of lying.”
There were Tweet responses accusing Nash is lying.
And it’s not the first time Redick was accused of racism. As a member of the Phialdelphia 76ers, he used a racial slur for a video being made for Chinese fans of the NBA.
From an ESPN story in 2018, this:
After drawing criticism for appearing to use a racial slur while wishing Chinese fans a happy new year in an online video that surfaced Sunday, Philadelphia 76ers guard JJ Redick offered an explanation and an apology in a statement posted to Twitter.
The video, produced by Chinese media company Tencent, shows multiple NBA players and coaches wishing fans a happy Chinese New Year, which was Friday. In his appearance in the video, Redick appears to use a racial slur toward fans in China.
Redick addressed the video Sunday in a tweet, saying that he was “tongue-tied” and that the “word I purportedly said is not in my vocabulary.”
He offered a more detailed explanation in a follow-up tweet later Sunday evening, writing that he intended to say “NBA Chinese fans” before changing course mid-sentence to “NBA fans in China.”
Please read. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/phL6v7Voeb
— JJ Redick (@JJRedick) February 19, 2018
“It came out the wrong way,” Redick said in the tweet. “At the time we recorded it, no one in the room … heard the word that I purported to say. Had I known it sounded anything like that, I would have been mortified and recorded the greeting over again.”
There are photos of emails suggesting they were written by Redick that are not authenticated from 2017 that also use racial slurs; because they can’t beconfirmed, I’n not going to republish.
However, I find Nash credible and Redick’s statement lacking. The story is out there so let’s see what other facts shake out.
Leave a Reply