Suns and Grizzlies celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy with marquee holiday game

Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams and Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant talk about the importance of playing Monday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Arizona Republic

It can be hard to find joy when staring at the current state of the country.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging America and the rioting on Capitol Hill earlier this month, the nation is in a fragile state, but Martin Luther King Jr. Day gives us all reason to celebrate and realize more work needs to be done to make this nation a better place like King did in the 1960s.

The NBA has made the day even more special by continuing to schedule games to honor Dr. King. It comes at a good time for the Phoenix Suns, who haven’t played since Jan. 11 as their last three games have been postponed in accordance with the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

The Suns (7-4) are set to resume action Monday on the national holiday that celebrates the man who led the Civil Rights Movement that brought great change to America. The game takes on greater meaning for the Suns because they’re playing in Memphis (6-6), where King was assassinated April 4, 1968.

“I just hope that it doesn’t just become something we do,” Suns coach Monty Williams said as the NBA has made a game on MLK Day in Memphis an annual occurrence. “I hope it continues to become a moment in time, a moment in the year where we really think about what Dr. King sacrificed so that a guy like me can be in this position, because that’s what I think about.”

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With times so strained on many levels, Monday’s game provides a backdrop for something far greater taking place in the country today.

“We’re really looking forward to it, especially with the things going on today,” Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant said Saturday.

“I feel like it’s tough, with seeing so many crazy things. We’re realizing a lot, but as far as the Memphis Grizzlies being able to play on that day. I feel like it’ll be real special for us, and it probably means a lot to me and some of my teammates, so we’re looking forward to that game.”

Williams will miss out on the chance to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis since it is temporarily closed amid the pandemic, but he’s still honored to play in the city on MLK Day.

“To have this opportunity to play this particular game means a ton to me,” Williams said. “I know it means a ton to our guys.”

Born in 1971, Williams recalls first learning about King as a kid in school, but he realized early how much of a mark the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner made by seeing how his family revered him.

Suns coach Monty Williams was raised by his grandfather who revered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports)

“Growing up in colonial Virginia, if you know anything about that part of the country, there was a number of tensions there,” Williams said. “Because of that, you heard the family members talk about Dr. King and many others who were not just speaking out, but sacrificing a ton so that our world, our country could be a better place.”

Williams said his grandfather, who raised him, looked up to King. So while he heard stories from his family about the struggles of living in Virginia, Williams recognized how much King meant to his grandfather when hearing him talk about the famed minister.

“There was always an utmost awe and respect and that had a huge impact on me as a 5-, 6-, 7-year old because my grandad was my hero, and Dr. King was his hero,” Williams said. “So I would watch his reaction to people like Dr. King and it had an impact on me.”

Williams says he credits people like King for making sacrifices that allow someone like him to have an opportunity to be an African-American man in a position of leadership, to make “more money” than the Suns coach feels he deserves.

During the Suns’ time in the NBA bubble last summer, the team watched a 2017 documentary about filmmaker Loki Mulholland, the white son of Civil Rights activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, who discovered his family helped establish institutional racism in America dating back to slavery 400 years ago.

“People like him (King) and my grandfather and many others, Loki Mulholland, so many people laid it on the line so that we all can have a chance to play on an equal playing field,” Williams said.

Martin Luther King Jr. speaks during the March on Washington in footage seen in ‘MLK/FBI.’

 (Photo: Courtesy of IFC Films)