2021 NCAA tournament live updates: Sweet 16 scores and analysis from Sunday’s games
Creighton men’s basketball players used insensitive comments by their coach to send a powerful message.
The Bluejays are playing in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1974. Less than a month ago, Coach Greg McDermott was suspended by the school for using the word “plantation” to tell his players to stay together after a tough loss. “Guys, we got to stick together,” McDermott had said. “We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”
In a video shown before a March 6 home game, two days after the suspension, Christian Bishop said, “James Baldwin said not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed without being faced.”
Other players joined him in doing just that.
“For slaves, life on a plantation was filled with mental, emotional, physical, psychological and sexual abuse,” Shereef Mitchell added. “You were owned as property and not human. Slaves had no rights and no voice. They were branded like cattle, forced from their homeland and stripped of their culture, language and basic human rights. They worked 18 hours a day, six days a week. Any sign of wrongdoing such as lack of productivity, not following instructions or resistance would result in beatings or death and that is why …”
” … what Coach Mac said hurt me and my teammates,” Denzel Mahoney said, finishing Mitchell’s statement in the video.
“People speak about inequalities and equalities but don’t truly know what it means to be equal,” Antwann Jones said, “and I feel like this is the start for a new conversation to be had in the future. Let’s continue to educate each other and let’s continue to grow.”
