Lloyd Pierce has received plenty of encouragement and positive feedback since becoming a leader among NBA coaches in the fight for racial justice, including Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s succinct message.
“Pop told me to take no prisoners,” Pierce said. “That’s Pop. Pop is not concerned about the reaction, he’s concerned about what’s right. And I think all of those that have shared any sort of compliment, of any sort, it’s really been centered around helping them become active participants in this. Whereas a lot of us, myself included, we weren’t.”
Popovich, who knows Pierce personally from their time on Team USA (Popovich as head coach, Pierce as an assistant coach), isn’t the slightest bit surprised to see Pierce at the forefront of this movement.
“He’s got a great ability to relate to people, so he can speak to players, he can speak to business people, he can speak to government officials and make sense, because he’s got a great combination of intelligence and maturity and something that will sound a little different to a lot of people, but a great feel,” Popovich said. “He has a great feel for the situation, for who he’s speaking to, for how to get things across. He’s just a genuine article.”
After George Floyd’s death May 25, Pierce led a Zoom call with all his fellow NBA coaches (and a few former coaches, as well), sharing his thoughts and feelings passionately, and with a focus on what steps coaches and teams could take to help.
Pierce said he is in a group text with several Black coaches and assistant coaches from around the league, including Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff, Cavaliers assistant coach J.J. Outlaw, former Knicks and Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, Timberwolves assistant coach David Vanterpool, Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy, Jazz assistant coach Johnnie Bryant, Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham, Sixers assistant coach John Bryant, Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley and Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, and he knew he needed to speak out.
“I just felt compelled to say more as a head coach, one of the few head coaches in that crew, about what’s going on, and I also just felt that the moment, in terms of those guys, feeling like maybe they didn’t know where to go, in terms of organizationally,” Pierce said.
“We just wanted to make sure that every head coach knew, that in addition to myself, I should be reaching out to my staff and my guys, but in addition, they should be reaching out to their guys, because a lot of their guys are on that thread and are in need of some assistance.”
He was met with support, and a National Basketball Coaches Association committee on racial justice was formed, with Pierce naturally taking the reins.
“You could feel both the pain, the feeling of a tired sort of ‘Here we are again, nothing has changed,’ sort of feeling just emanating from his bones,” Popovich said of Pierce’s message on that first Zoom call. “It informed his passion and how committed he was, not just to the George Floyd horror, but his desire to get this across to people, so that everybody would act. That’s why he engaged all of us, which was very wise on his part. That’s 30 pretty good-sized cities.
“He had this vision, he saw down the road, if we could all do things in our communities that affect systemic racism, just not talk, he knew that would be a great step forward. So, he challenged us all. Because we respect him so much, and because he is so genuine, we’re all following suit.”
Since then, a lot has changed for the Hawks coach, whose efforts haven’t relented. Pierce is 44 and will enter his third season with Atlanta in the 2020-21 season. He spends more time on Zoom calls and on the phone than ever before. He researches. He coordinates. In the words of his friend Killer Mike, he “plots, plans, strategizes, organizes and mobilizes.” And other coaches are following his lead.
Obviously, Pierce is still a basketball coach with (virtual) meetings to attend, though the Hawks are one of eight teams not resuming their season in the Orlando bubble. He can enter the practice facility, though the Hawks still can’t do team workouts because of restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Outside of basketball, he’s a dad to 2-year-old daughter Maya Joy.
Over the past few months, Pierce, who has never spearheaded anything like this before, has led the NBA coaches in focusing on sustainable action they can take, as well as putting in place a web of relationships that will stay in place long after individual coaches have moved on, and bringing attention to the movement.
“We need our assistant coaches, we need our players, we need our ownership groups, we need the NBA to keep this thing moving forward,” Pierce said. “So regardless of how we shift and move, as an association we need to be committed to all of the things we’re doing.”
Advancing the platform
If you’re watching when NBA games start back July 30, you may see a video of NBA coaches reading a statement on racial justice and equality. That’s when Pierce is hoping the video will debut, to capture as many eyes as possible (the Lakers and Clippers play that night).
Bryan Stevenson, founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative and a friend of Pierce’s, wrote the script and has helped guide the committee. The league is helping to put the video together.
It’s a concept you’ve seen before, Pierce said, but it keeps the conversation going.
“We do have a pretty strong statement just addressing that truth and our stance in wanting to keep the conversations alive, and the conversations that we’re having are about the history of injustices in this country that have led us to this point,” Pierce said.
“A lot of times, I think the conversation circles back to the ‘right now.’ ‘Lloyd Pierce is a head coach, you can’t say he doesn’t have opportunity.’ Just because there’s one, doesn’t mean that we’re all equal and we’re all free and we all have that opportunity.
“What we’d like to see is more Lloyd Pierces have opportunity, in every sector, not just in basketball, not just in football, but in every sector. Statistical analysis, politics, whatever case you want to go. And the reason why that isn’t present now is because of our past, and we have to talk about our past of injustices and oppression, and how it’s created this divisiveness in our country, when it comes to equality.”
In the Orlando bubble, many coaches and players have used their platform to discuss issues of injustice and police brutality, with many invoking Breonna Taylor, who was shot multiple times during a police raid on her apartment (no drugs were founds in Taylor’s apartment, and no-knock warrants have now been banned in Louisville through “Breonna’s Law”).
Talking about issues is important, Pierce said, and so is coming up with an action plan.
“It’s all great, but at some point you have to advance your platform, you have to advance how you use your platform,” Pierce said. “So if every day, you just come up and you say ‘Justice for Breonna Taylor,’ well, that’ll get drowned out, and it’s not the messenger’s fault, it’s the reality. The next day, you’ve got to advance that. You’ve got to advance what you mean, or what you’re doing, or what people should do. So I think that’s where we’re all focused as a committee.
“We’re encouraged by everything that’s going on in Orlando. To see Jerami Grant, to see Marcus Smart, to see Tobias Harris, Kyle Korver speak on racial injustice and the coaches as well, but now it’s, what else? What else can we do, what else are we doing?”
To that point, one initiative coaches are focusing on is having each coach partner with a local grass-roots organization to help bring about positive change. While there are nationwide issues to address, joining forces with people in the community can help with issues unique to that city. The purpose, per Pierce, is for coaches and teams to connect and learn how they can help, through the lens of the local organization, and eventually to help provide resources and a bigger platform.
The NBCA also has partnered with the Obama Foundation, which has connected it with the My Brother’s Keeper mentorship program, and has helped direct Pierce and the committee on how to build trust in communities and create helpful programs.
With the Hawks, Pierce has brought on different speakers during team Zoom meetings, including Stacey Abrams, who founded Fair Fight, an organization that advocates for voting rights, and Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. He also created the ATL Pledge, which shines a spotlight on two local nonprofits, Hope Thru Soap and the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
On June 15, Pierce spoke at an NAACP rally in downtown Atlanta, drawing applause when mentioning the Hawks’ plans to turn State Farm Arena into a polling place (the idea came from Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, with Pierce and owner Tony Ressler quickly hopping on board). The arena now is the largest polling place in Georgia. In their next coach’s meeting, Pierce issued a challenge to all 30 NBA coaches to help their teams do the same, in an effort to make voting more accessible.
“Once I saw him step foot in the city of Atlanta, he’s been running around like a madman trying to put his fingerprint on the community in a positive way and use his voice in an extremely positive manner,” Hawks power forward John Collins said. “He’s using his platform in every different way imaginable. … I think that’s just who he is as a man. He wants to squeeze (as much) positive reinforcement and energy from himself to use for others as he can.”
Ripple effect
Not long after the Hawks announced they would turn State Farm Arena into a polling place, which is particularly handy during this time of social distancing, Hornets coach James Borrego reached out to Lloyd Pierce wanting to discuss that process.
As of this week, the Hornets joined the Pistons and Kings in following the Hawks’ footsteps to use their arenas as polling places, with the Bucks working to do the same.
Both the Hawks’ efforts and Pierce’s individual efforts have created a ripple effect.
For Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder, a member of the committee, Pierce helping this big of a group to focus and begin to create an action plan is impressive.
“For him to embrace this the way he has, there’s a level of not only respect but admiration,” Snyder said. “I know how good a coach he is, but you don’t get a chance to see people and know them in this context. To that extent, it has been essential. … I just think what’s happened it’s significant, to have a group of 30 coaches from markets across the country to be galvanized in the way that we have, and I think it speaks to really the authenticity of the way Lloyd has shared what he believes and give us all an opportunity to participate.”
Former Pistons coach and current NBA analyst Stan Van Gundy credited Pierce for leading coaches’ efforts, in both his speech during that first Zoom call and his efforts since then.
“Just the fact of bringing 30 head coaches together on something like this, I’ve never seen anything like it, not in my time in the league,” Van Gundy said. “I’ve certainly seen coaches speak out on their own or get involved locally, but I’ve never seen a cohesive effort of all 30 teams coming together to work on an issue like this. It’s pretty amazing, and I know there wouldn’t be that kind of cohesion without what Lloyd’s done. I give him a ton of credit, because I’ve never seen anybody do something like that… For somebody that four months ago I knew very little about, in a short amount of time, I don’t know how many people I can say I respect as much as Lloyd Pierce.”
Pierce is encouraged by the support of fellow coaches, but emphasized: “The support isn’t for me, the support is us supporting each other and being unified and trying to do what we can with our teams, with the NBA and our local markets. We’re doing this together and we’re bouncing the ideas off of each other.”
Recently, Pierce has started tweeting a calendar from Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative, which draws attention to an instance of racial injustice that was carried out on that day. On July 14, it was a story about the same day in 1804: “200 Kidnapped Africans Trafficked to New Orleans.” On July 17, a story from the same day in 2001: “Study Reveals Resegregation of American Public Schools.”
It’s part of his focus to keep the conversation going, in whatever ways he can.
“I honestly, I feel the duty-bound responsibility, the duty-bound motivation to keep doing this, because I know it’s greater than ‘this is just about me,’” Pierce said.
