Suns, Grizzlies can celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in playing on national holiday

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

Hard to find joy when staring at the current state of our country.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging America and the rioting at Capitol Hill earlier this month, the nation is fragile at best, 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 he did in the 1960s.

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

The Suns (7-4) are set to resume action Monday on the national holiday that celebrates a 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 it an annual game for the NBA to play a game on MLK Day in Memphis. “I hope it continues to become a moment in time, a moment or season 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.”  

Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams watches play during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, in San Antonio. Phoenix won 103-99. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

 (Photo: Darren Abate, AP)

With times being so strained on many levels, the pandemic and considering King’s role in leading a monumental movement that was reintroduced to the world with the Black Lives Matter movement calling for social justice and racial equality, Monday’s game provides a backdrop for something far greater taking place in our country today.

“We’re really looking forward to it especially with the things going on today,” Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant said after Saturday’s 106-104 home win over Philadelphia.

“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 revisit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis since it’s temporarily closed amid the pandemic, but he’s still honored to play in Memphis on MLK Day 2021.

“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 Dr. 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.

President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on July 2, 1964, after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the 72 pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act in Washington.

 (Photo: AP)

“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 Dr. King. So while he heard stories from his family about the struggles of living in Virginia, Williams recognized how much Dr. 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 five, six, seven-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 Dr. King for making sacrifices that allows someone like him to have an opportunity to be an African-American male in a position of leadership to make “more money” than the Suns coach feels he deserves.

“People like him 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,” said Williams as he had his team during their time in the bubble last summer watch a 2017 documentary on Amazon Prime about Mulholland, the white son of a Civil Rights activist, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, who discovered his family helped establish institutional racism in America dating back to slavery 400 years ago.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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