Lakers' Alex Caruso Uses Media Availability To Demand Justice For Breonna Taylor
Alex Caruso used his media availability Wednesday to demand justice for Breonna Taylor.
After briefly discussing his sadness around missing his sister's wedding to remain in the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World, Caruso refused to answer any basketball-related questions, saying he wanted to use his platform to raise awareness around Taylor's death.
Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, was shot by three Louisville police officers on March 13 in her own apartment in what's being called a botched drug-warrant execution.
The shooting is under investigation by the FBI and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. So far, none of the officers have been charged or arrested.
When Caruso was asked about being on the brink of playing in his first postseason, he responded by bringing up Taylor.
"I’m just going to respond with, ‘We need justice for Breonna Taylor,’" Caruso said. "That’s going to be my response to the rest of the questions if they’re basketball-related and not pertaining to me and my sister’s wedding."
Caruso joined a handful of NBA players who have used their media availabilities to discuss Taylor, including Philadelphia 76ers' Tobias Harris, Denver Nuggets' Jerami Grant and Portland Trail Blazers' CJ McCollum.
Caruso said he decided to talk about Taylor after conferring with other players inside the bubble who are fighting for social justice.
"Just got information from the rest of the players who are trying to stay united with the message," Caruso said. "This is one way we can control it from inside the bubble. It seems to be an important thing. It’s been four months since it happened that she was murdered in her sleep and nobody has been held accountable."
Caruso acknowledged that he didn't learn about Taylor's death until a video of George Floyd being murdered by a white police officer on May 25 in Minneapolis went viral, inspiring nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.
"It wasn’t until after George Floyd happened," Caruso said. "It wasn’t until after a bunch of things that I didn’t realize were going on in the world were brought to my attention."
Caruso recently said that as a white NBA player, he has a responsibility to speak out against racial injustices, adding that he's 100 percent behind his Black teammates and coaches.
"I feel like it costs zero dollars and zero cents to be a good person [and] to treat everybody how they are supposed to be treated regardless of race, gender, age, political views," Caruso said earlier this month.
Caruso added Wednesday that many of the more-than-300 players inside the bubble are committed to using the NBA restart as an opportunity to raise awareness for social justice.
Instead of letting basketball distract from their cause, they're going to use it to their advantage.
"It’s such an important time in the world and in a lot of our lives to be able to create change and impact change and start getting justice for Breonna," he said.
