{"id":563946,"date":"2026-01-27T12:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/563946\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:05:13","slug":"cant-be-who-we-are-as-a-country-how-january-forced-the-cavs-to-confront-the-world-beyond-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/563946\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Can\u2019t be who we are as a country\u2019: How January forced the Cavs to confront the world beyond the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 When the final horn sounded and the Cavs<\/a> walked off the floor after a 114-98 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday night, the usual procedures followed. Celebration for one side. Reflection for the other. Then the slow exhale that comes when the adrenaline fades and reality creeps back in.<\/p>\n

They went home to loved ones. They replayed possessions in their heads, good and bad. They reminded themselves that, for all the emotion poured into 48 minutes, basketball is still a game \u2014 and the world outside the arena never stops turning. No matter who you are. No matter what you believe.<\/p>\n

For this Cavs team, that reality hit a bit harder this month.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 7, Cleveland was on a routine business trip to Minnesota, preparing to face the Timberwolves the next night. The day unfolded like any other road stop until it didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

News broke of the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent just miles away. Suddenly, the normal protections of the NBA lifestyle disappeared. Players were restricted to their hotel rooms. Plans were scrapped. The invisible barrier between the league and real life cracked.<\/p>\n

Even when NBA players are insulated by security details, private flights and upscale dinners, they are still breathing the same air as everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in this bubble as NBA players, right? Like, we\u2019re removed,\u201d Donovan Mitchell<\/a> said. \u201cBut in the same token, being there in Minnesota when that happened, it really made you open your eyes because you\u2019re there, you feel it, right? It\u2019s 10 minutes away. We\u2019re on lockdown in the hotel. You can only feel for the people of Minnesota, feel for the families, because it\u2019s just not right … It\u2019s the human element. It\u2019s the human part of it that gets to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not right that it keeps happening. It\u2019s not right that it\u2019s desensitized the way it is … that can\u2019t be who we are as a country, as a people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, on Jan. 24, it happened again. Alex Pretti was fatally shot by an ICE agent. Videos recorded by bystanders flooded the internet, looping across screens, impossible to unsee. The distance between the league and the world narrowed even further.<\/p>\n

A vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, Mitchell has never shied away from responsibility<\/a> on and off the court. His opportunity to play basketball for a living is rooted in family sacrifice. His late grandmother traveled to the United States from Panama. <\/p>\n

After his 45-point performance on Monday, Mitchell carried a Panamanian flag into the locker room. He has spoken about wanting to represent Team World in the All-Star Game, a gesture of pride and identity.<\/p>\n

But pride can coexist with fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have family who came to this country, and they fear for their lives,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re legal citizens, like, they fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Mitchell spoke, Jaylon Tyson sat quietly beside him. Only in his second year in the NBA, Tyson didn\u2019t interrupt or shift in his seat. His eyes drifted \u2014 at times back to Minnesota, at times forward \u2014 before settling on his teammate as Mitchell worked through his thoughts. Mitchell was navigating a delicate truth in real time, choosing words carefully, understanding the weight behind each one. Tyson listened, learning how to command a room, how to use a voice and a platform without losing the humanity at the center of it all.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 25, the NBPA and its executive committee released a statement<\/a> addressing the recent events in Minneapolis. The message included a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., honored by the NBA just days earlier on Jan. 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere comes a time when silence is betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Refusing silence doesn\u2019t always come through words. For some, it means actions. Sometimes it takes shape through presence. And sometimes, it enters the arena before tipoff, already saying enough.<\/p>\n

Cavs forward Larry Nance Jr. didn\u2019t have to say a word. He walked in and out of Rocket Arena wearing a black t-shirt that read: \u201cAll my homies hate ICE. No one is illegal on stolen land. Immigrants make America great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shirt is sold by the brand CHNGE<\/a>, which donates 100% of its profits to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. In the last two weeks, the brand has donated more than $112,000 toward the cause.<\/p>\n

Moments like these blur the lines fans often hope sports can erase. Basketball is supposed to be an escape. A separation from the heaviness of the world. But the players don\u2019t get to toggle that switch. They carry everything with them \u2014 onto the plane, into the hotel, through security and eventually onto the floor.<\/p>\n

Before they are athletes, they are people. That is the common thread that binds the locker room to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have empathy for what\u2019s going on in that community and for the families,\u201d Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said before Monday\u2019s game about the situation in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Empathy doesn\u2019t belong to a place or a moment. It doesn\u2019t wait for a ticket to be scanned, a ball to be tipped or a story to be read. It asks to be carried into the arena, onto the floor and back into everything beyond it.<\/p>\n

For the Cavs, January has served as a reminder that the bubble offers comfort, not protection. And eventually, the world always finds its way through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 When the final horn sounded and the Cavs walked off the floor after a 114-98…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,69732,3846,6,76730],"class_list":["post-563946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-cleveland-cavaliers-2025-2026","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-nba","tag-orlando-magic-2025-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115966975896083121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}