CJ McCollum
Photo credit: Nick Wass/Associated Press

CJ McCollum believes ‘basketball is secondary’ in the restart of the NBA this week.

The superstar of the Portland Trail Blazers explained that even though basketball is his profession, it comes second, because of the coronavirus and the current social climate in the United States.

“It’s our job. Obviously we have a responsibility to fulfill those obligations. But it’s also our job to fulfill and protect our neighborhoods, and protect the people who look like us, and come from places like us, and don’t exactly have the same voices that we do.

I think that that’s something that’s been on all of our minds. We’ve been very proactive about it. And me, a person who’s big on education, education reform, I’ve continued to try to have those conversations with like-minded people, people who care about education.

We continue to figure out ways to collectively make an impact and making change. But there are people who are involved in prison reform. There are people involved in police reform, and so many other different things that are more so up their alley.

We continue to try to have those discussions, conversations. And the biggest thing for us is education. You want to be educated on the matters you’re speaking on, and really have a passion, and make sure that it’s a point of focus for you individually,” McCollum said, via David Aldridge of The Athletic.