NBA on TNT’s MLK Day Roundtable: What Did Isiah Thomas, Killer Mike and Others Say About Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy?

January 15 isn’t only about the 11 NBA games scheduled on Monday. The league has a long-running tradition of celebrating MLK Day with various tributes to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights icons. NBA on TNT doesn’t sit out this event either. The Roundtable is one of the features of TNT coverage on MLK Day to reaffirm the fight for social justice.

Even before it was marked as a federal holiday nationwide, the NBA has honored King who was assassinated in 1968. NBA teams took up several initiatives to mark MLK Day, while TNT brought together some of its most recognizable faces for a poignant discussion. Isiah Thomas, Killer Mike, Reverend Warnock, Renee Montgomery, and others discuss the “Unfinished Business” started by King.

Isiah Thomas made family history

In a TNT special titled, “Unfinished Business: Advancing Dr. King’s Dream,” several personalities reflect on the civil rights movement’s impact on their own lives. Isiah Thomas said on this panel, “We are still in a society today that bases resources and everything else on skin color and zip code. And that’s what we’re still trying to fight to get out of.” 

Zeke’s NBA career remains remarkable in itself. But it’s also a personal achievement for his family as the multi-preneur revealed he is the first person in his family to live outside the Jim Crow laws. They threw it back to Bad Boy Pistons era Zeke who was championing social justice for Detroit residents since his playing career.

Killer Mike keeps it real

This is still NBA on TNT. So apart from calling Dr. King a “Brave, charismatic, and bold individual who was a bad*** revolutionary,” he had a bone to pick with Zeke at the start of the game. The roundtable was filmed in the King Center of Atlanta, the city synonymous with MLK.

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It’s also famous for the Atlanta Hawks, the team that got throttled by the New York Knicks under Head Coach Isiah Thomas. Killer Mike didn’t like Zeke for that but he admired that as a coach, Thomas brought his teams to the King Center as a way of “passing on history” and teaching these players the responsibility that comes with the NBA platform. He also proudly took credit for giving LeBron James the sources to further his own activism.

A WNBA champion touches on the unspoken

It wasn’t only when he uttered the words, “I have a dream…” The Nobel laureate remains the most quotable personality whose words hold relevance. Renee Montgomery touched on “What about the inconvenient things he said?” She said a lot needs to be done to practice what King preached. Remember, she sat out of the 2020 season to advocate for social justice reform and people didn’t like her “words.”

Montgomery was also present at the Memphis Grizzlies annual MLK Day Symposium where she spoke about her foundation dedicated to social justice.

Sports opens doors

With a WNBA champion and a 2x NBA champion with him, Killer Mike said, “Sports brings us together.” Zeke said sports is where “the playing field is level.”

Reverend Raphael Warnock was sitting at the roundtable as the first black senator from the state of Georgia. He stated that it wouldn’t have been possible without Dr. King. He also gave credit to Montgomery and WNBA athletes who reawakened Georgia to stand up for social justice.

A legend is remembered

This roundtable is incomplete without bringing up Bill Russell. He stood up against racism towards himself, his family, and his teammates throughout his career. And he continued that till his demise. Thomas concluded that we still have to keep going with the unfinished business advocated by Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Russell, and more icons.

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