Ex-NBA player writes an open letter to Richard Sherman explaining why Black Lives Matter

 Seahawks' Richard Sherman answers a question at a news conference for NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game on Jan. 25, 2015 in Phoenix.

Richard Sherman shared a divisive perspective with the media recently when he commented on the efforts of Black Lives Matter activists.

“I think as long as we have black-on-black crime and, you know, one black man killing another … if black lives matter, then it should matter all the time.”

Sherman’s comments received mixed feelings from both the public and within the Seattle Seahawks’ locker room. Teammate Doug Baldwin tweeted that he was proud of Sherman, while Michael Bennett shared a dissenting view.

The conclusion Sherman reached was that by first addressing the internal injustices within the black community, it gives greater strength to one’s ability to fight the injustice that occurs from external forces. Bennett countered by pointing out that those external forces are trusted to protect the black community, like every other community, from those internal injustices and that is what he believe the Black Lives Activists were attempting to achieve with their protest.

Former NBA player Etan Thomas penned an open letter to Sherman in The Nation, which addressed some of Bennett’s themes but also expanded upon that point and touched on the ramifications of Sherman’s words.

The main takeaway from your address appears suggest that “black-on-black” crime somehow excuses police brutality, or at least is a more urgent issue to address. Now, I know you didn’t say that exactly, but that’s what was heard.

It’s exactly what they have been waiting for and specifically what they want to hear. You are too brilliant to allow the media to twist and contort your message to mean what they want it to say.

Thomas went one to say that black-on-black crime was a phrase commonly heard on Fox News as a limp excuse for police brutality, and not something he would have ever expected from Sherman. The former NBA first round pick concluded his letter explaining why he was moved to write:

I am writing this with the utmost respect. Your voice is too powerful. You embody what we want athletes to aspire to become. Athletes who use their position as a platform and create change. Athletes who are unafraid to speak their minds and are unapologetic when it comes to standing up for what they believe in. But with that power comes great responsibility and you have to choose your words very carefully because a lot of people see that you’re special and take what you say to heart.