The Washington Wizards used their team photo shoot this year to make a big statement.
The NBA team on Tuesday shared with the public their 2020-21 team photo and a behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together. Each member of the roster wore a black T-shirt with the words “Equality,” “Justice” and “Accountability” emblazoned on it. Wizards coaches and staff members wore black in solidarity with the players.
The team explained in an NBA.com article the reason why they decided to break tradition.
“It’s definitely a statement piece for us,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal said in the article. “Obviously, we’re a team and we do everything together. We’re still citizens of this country and this world. This is us just choosing a few words that we kind of live by, that we kind of hold ourselves to as men and as teammates. Hopefully, the rest of the world can follow suit and do the same as we try to make it a better place.”
The Wizards also took a team photo with their team’s COVID-19 medical workers, thanking them for keeping the team safe throughout the season.
The franchise has used their platform to support the Black Lives Matter movement and racial justice protests that spread nationwide last summer. Players for the Wizards and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics took to the streets of Washington on Juneteenth to march with protesters.
Wizards guard Russell Westbrook is also an executive producer on the History Channel documentary “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre,” which details the massacre of Black residents and burning of Black-owned businesses in Tulsa, Okla. The documentary is set to premiere on May 30.