You couldn’t see the hurt, the exhaustion or maybe the desire to put his fist through a wall on Fred VanVleet’s face. It was there, tucked behind the mask that he wore, black and red in the centre, with a black fist raised, the way that Tommie Smith and John Carlos did at the 1968 Olympics.
It was almost 52 years ago that they stood on the podium in Mexico City, demanding equality and justice. Three days ago, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisc. opened fire on Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man as he entered his car.