While sport continued, each game seemed diminished by the magnitude of Tuesday’s
tragedy.
Before Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and the
Boston Celtics in Miami, a moment of silence was held for those lost.
“The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 to leave
a message demanding their support for common sense gun laws. You can also make
change at the ballot box,” said a message from the public address announcer
following the silence, while the crowd voiced their approval by cheering.
The first half of the game was finely poised before the Celtics pulled away from the
Heat in the third quarter to build an unassailable lead and win 93-80. Jaylen Brown
top scored for the Celtics with 25 points and Jayson Tatum added 22.
Boston now takes a 3-2 series lead and is just one win away from a first NBA Finals
appearance in 12 years.
Tuesday’s shooting by an 18-year-old was the USA’s second mass shooting in less
than two weeks after a different 18-year-old gunman trafficking in White supremacist
theories allegedly killed 10 Black Americans in Buffalo.
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“Obviously, everybody says their prayers and condolences to the families of those
kids,” Tatum told reporters, “but at some point that does get tiring of going through
the same process and the same result keeps happening over and over again.
I’m a basketball player, I don’t have a lot of answers,” he added, “but something does
have to change in that regard because obviously things like this unfortunately
continue to happen.”
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, meanwhile, began his pregame press
conference by saying that he was “devastated by the news.”
“It just continues to happen,” he said. “I know everybody is saying that there needs to
be a call to action, and I think what this is forcing people to do is just to figure it out,
including myself.
“We don’t have the answers, but we want to be heard to be able to force change to the
people that can actually make the change.”
