Cade Cunningham to Use Platform to Speak Out Against Social Injustices
STILLWATER -- It's been a fun 72-hours for Oklahoma State basketball fans. Cade Cunningham announced his decision to stick with Mike Boynton and Co. despite an upcoming postseason ban during the 2020-21 season.
The program then got a glowing endorsement from ESPN's Dick Vitale calling for the NCAA to overturn the postseason ban. Mike Boynton even replied to a comment in the best way possible.
But just in the past 24 hours, Cunningham has sat down with SI All-American and SI's Director of Basketball Recruiting, Jason Jordan, for an exclusive interview.
So far, Jordan has put out two articles on the interview, with the first being about Cunningham's decision to return.
The second was sent out Wednesday morning and it's an incredible article. The title of it is 'Oklahoma State Point Guard Cade Cunningham Feels Responsibility to Speak Out on Social Injustice'
“I just feel like we all have to do our part,” Cunningham told SI All-American. “It’s gonna take everyone. One of the responsibilities that comes with having a platform and a voice is to speak out. I understand that, and I want to do it.”
In the wake of the death of George Floyd, several athletes across the world, including Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard, have used their platforms to speak out against social injustices.
Even though he's not on campus yet, Cunningham already has one of the biggest reaches and impacts as a student-athlete.
He's the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2020 class, as well as the projected No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft.
“I definitely think we’ve been making a super strong push right now,” Cunningham told SI All-American. “I feel like if we let our foot off the gas, I feel like that would be hurting us. We may never get this close to make a change again. Using my platform, I want to try and make my voice be heard and speak on the problems that are going on today.”
These comments also come a few days after Mike Boynton spoke with local media about Cunningham's decision.
Boynton also spoke on the hot topic of "stick to sports."
For years now, athletes, whether high-profile or not, have used their platforms to try and help implement change.
“I look at this as so much more important than just sports,” Boynton said on Monday. “I’m always bothered when people say the words, ‘stick to sports’ because I think it’s actually quite the opposite.
“Sports really are one of the few places where a lot of biases, almost necessarily, have to be put behind us because those guys have to come together from different parts of the country and different upbringings and figure out how to have success. We should be looking inward and trying to figure out what is it that teams do that work. And then branch out to the rest of society and figure out how we do this in banks and how we do this in engineering firms and different places like that.”
