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Jeff Zillgitt
| USA TODAY
NBA players and coaches use the platform again in the wake of the Capitol riots
SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports Jeff Zillgitt examines the latest example of the NBA as a league encouraging its players and coaches to speak out and use their platform, this time in the wake of the Riots on Capitol Hill.
SportsPulse, USA TODAY
The Utah Jazz said in a statement they were cooperating with an NBA investigation into former guard Elijah Millsap’s allegations that Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Dennis Lindsey made threats to racist character during an exit meeting at the end of the 2014-15 season.
“The Jazz organization has zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior of any kind,” the team said in a statement Thursday. “We take these issues seriously. We have proactively engaged an outside lawyer to work in coordination with the NBA to fully investigate this matter. We are seeking a full and impartial review of the situation. “
In one series of tweets posted Wednesday eveningMillsap accused Lindsey of making “bigoted remarks” during her exit interview which included jazz coach Quin Snyder. Millsap alleged that one of Lindsey’s remarks was to say, “If you say one more word, I’m going to cut your black ass off and send you back to Louisiana.”
Lindsey told reporters in Salt Lake City: “I categorically deny making this statement.”
“Honestly, I don’t remember the conversation, but I would be shocked,” Snyder said after the Jazz won over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. “I can’t understand Dennis saying something like that.
Millsap performed with Jazz during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. Lindsey is in his second season as executive vice president of basketball operations for the Jazz after serving the previous seven seasons as the team’s general manager.
As the 2018-19 season neared the end of the season, Lindsey was disturbed when a jazz fan addressed inappropriate comments to Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City during a Jazz-Thunder game in Salt Lake City.
In a raw and moving interview with USA TODAY Sports, Lindsey said, “As Pop (San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich) said, we need to talk about our national sin. “People can say, ‘Hey, whatever, what the fan said was a little thing.’ Well, it is not. What this does is make everyone feel small, and every Caucasian should look at himself and his heart. “
Lindsey grew up in Clute, Texas, the son of parents who oversaw group homes for underprivileged youth. Lindsey and her family sometimes lived in these multiracial homes.
“The thing I would say about it when you live with someone closer, you realize that there is one race – the human race,” Lindsey said in 2019. “That’s what we owe it to us. talk. This is our national discussion and we just need to admit where it is and where our heart is. It is largely fear and ignorance. “
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