After watching the world react to the death of George Floyd at the hands of US police, the Opals made the call to stand united against racism.
The May 25 incident in Minneapolis fuelled the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, with Australia’s leading female basketballers adding their voices to subsequent protests around the world.
The Opals announced they would not train until Basketball Australia (BA) made a commitment to eradicating racial injustice in the sport and highlight the impacts of racism here.
It prompted BA and the Opals to launch the RISE UP — an acronym for Respect, Injustice, Standards, Equality, Unity, Peace — campaign in July.
It’s what the team practices on and off the court, and will now take with them into the WNBL season, which will be played over six weeks in a north Queensland hub, starting on November 11.
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“The RISE UP campaign will be very prominent through the season,” Basketball Australia CEO Jerril Rechter told the ABC.
“It’s going on all the logos across all the uniforms, all of the decals and the LEDs at every single game.
“We’ve got Indigenous awareness information sessions happening with our athletes with an Elder. We’re launching our Reconciliation Action Plan next week.
“The power of us coming together with the Opals and asking the community to RISE UP, to see that this is not just an American problem, it’s a worldwide issue, and it has relevance here in Australia, it’s very powerful.”
How the players will make their voices heard during WNBL season
For Opal and Melbourne Boomers co-captain Cayla George, heading to Cairns, Mackay and Townsville gives her an opportunity to take what the RISE UP campaign means to her to places she would not have had the chance to experience in a normal season.
Connecting with communities in the region is something that is close to her heart.
“I certainly think with the season in north Queensland, with north Australia (including Northern Territory) holding almost two thirds of the Indigenous population (brings opportunity),” said the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
“A lot of my family from my husband’s side, my husband is a Torres Strait Islander, are there, and so for me, I’ll be making sure that I’ve got all of those Indigenous girls that I’m working with this year coming to our trainings and getting engaged.
“I’m also connected to the Phoenix Sports and Culture Club, which is all about getting kids off the streets and into recreational sport.
There is no fear or hesitation from George as she adds her voice to the campaign she deeply believes in, there is only passion.
The real fear comes from inaction, that nothing will change.
Rising Opals star to draw lessons from WNBA activism
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For George’s Boomers teammate, Ezi Magbegor, it won’t be the first time this year that she’ll be part of an environment that is “bigger than basketball”.
Magbegor will bring not only her WNBA championship-winning experience to this WNBL season, but lessons learned from her Seattle Storm teammates about using her profile as she becomes a world-class athlete.
“With my team at Seattle, I think everyone were great advocates. Sue (Bird) being so vocal, and Stewie (Breanna Stewart) was on the social justice council with the league. It wasn’t just one person.”
Magbegor has had plenty of time to reflect on her WNBA experiences moving from the “wubble” in Florida to hotel quarantine back in Australia, to another basketball bubble in Queensland.
The 21-year-old, whose parents moved from Nigeria to Australia via New Zealand, has valued the downtime.
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“I think the fact that us as players were playing for things that were bigger than basketball, it kind of had an impact on me as well, with the social justice work and everything. Just reflecting back on all that, it was a pretty powerful season,” she said.
It’s momentum Magbegor hopes to see continue here in Australia.
Basketball Australia wants to create a lasting legacy
Rechter does not shy away from the fact there is much more work to be done.
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“But if this is something that I can do to accelerate that and put all the foundation principles in place, because I want to think about this from a systems perspective, that is something that I’m really proud of, and will continue to work on.”
Rechter is determined to ensure that RISE UP is not a tokenistic campaign that sits on the shelf.
While there will be visible messaging and conversations, there is also work being done at policy and procedure level so the campaign becomes a whole of business, and a whole of sport approach, beginning with its integration into the WNBL season and continued support of how individual athletes choose to use their voices.
“The [WNBL] clubs have been really fantastic, it’s been an incredible privilege to work with them this year, because we’ve all had to work so hard to get this bubble season up and all had to make compromises, sacrifices, and those clubs have just been really fantastic,” Rechter said.
“From the owners, and the general managers, the coaches, the players, everyone’s behind us to create an environment in which these conversations can take place.”
ABC TV will broadcast two games of the WNBL each week, starting with George and Magbegor’s Melbourne Boomers facing the Southside Flyers at 5:00pm AEDT on November 14.
Kasey Symons is a Research Fellow in the Sport Innovation Research Group at Swinburne University in Melbourne and a co-founder of Siren: A Women in Sport Collective.
