Kings’ Harrison Barnes speaks out on racism; reveals wife, mother also had COVID-19
In his first interview since joining the team inside the NBA bubble, Kings forward Harrison Barnes spoke out against racial injustice and revealed his wife and mother contracted more serious cases of COVID-19 than he did.
Barnes had 12 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes in a 106-102 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday at Walt Disney World Resort, Sacramento’s final scrimmage before NBA play resumes later this week. When Barnes was asked what the past three weeks were like after testing positive over the Fourth of July weekend, Barnes responded with a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“The last three weeks have been crazy,” Barnes said. “I think first and foremost I want to acknowledge the families and loved ones of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain and all those who have lost their lives at the hands of police as a result of systematic racism and violence. I think the opportunity to play here in Orlando is a great platform for us to be able to speak out on these issues, so I’m thrilled to just be here with my teammates and support that cause.”
Barnes joined the team in Orlando on Friday and participated in practice for the first time Sunday before appearing in Monday’s scrimmage. Barnes said he never experienced symptoms, but his wife and mother did.
“My wife was sick — really sick — for about a week,” Barnes said. “My mom was sick for a couple of days. So in our household we were able to see the different ranges of how COVID can affect your system, how serious it is, how important it is that you’re wearing a mask. Social distancing, things like that are important, too. I myself haven’t been effected as far as how I felt, but in my household, it was noted.”
Barnes said he would have been reluctant to leave Sacramento if his wife and mother hadn’t shown signs of improvement over the past couple of weeks.
“It puts it in perspective,” Barnes said. “The people you love, they’re not there at the end of the day. But going through the game perspective, there was a period there where depending on if they were going to have to go to the hospital, I wasn’t going to be able to come down here, but they’re feeling much better now. They have little to no symptoms, waiting to test negative and go from there.”
Barnes has remained active on social media in his support of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said he chose “Say Their Names” from the list of NBA-approved social justice messages players will wear on their jerseys.
“A lot of times when there’s very tragic things that happen, a lot of the focus is on the killers, on the police or whoever it may be that committed the problem,” Barnes said. “Frankly, not enough attention is paid to the story of the people and their families who have suffered an insurmountable amount of pain at the loss of a life, so my focus is to keep attention on those victims, keep attention on what they were about and their families and supporting them.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 5:53 PM.
