Chauncey Billups and Etan Thomas discuss their support for Presidential candidate Barack Obama in tomorrow's election
Chauncey Billups wants to vote for change
Published: Nov. 03, 2008, 6:20 p.m.
By Pardeep Toor
Pretty much a nervous wreck, complete with shaky voice and droplets of sweat behind the ears, I slowly approached the Pistons locker room Nov. 1 - not really wanting to go in.
I'll admit it - I was terrified. These guys are my heroes and it's not easy talking to heroes (I wouldn't be able to talk to Spiderman either).
I walk in and Chauncey Billups is surrounded by cameras and other media members eagerly seeking their formulaic quotes so they could write their inconsequential game recaps that are as dated as John McCain. Standing back, waiting for my turn with Billups, Rodney Stuckey walks out of the shower and I quickly realize that I'm leaning against his chair. I apologize and stand by the wall so he can get dressed.
Eventually, the rest of the media makes a collective move to the right, like they're actually one large organism and not individual units of the media machine and I gingerly step up to ask Billups about his endorsement of Barack Obama for the upcoming Presidential election on Nov. 4. "I just feel like that a lot of times, athletes are in a position of power and a position of influence and I think we're in a position right now that we've never been as far as having an African American running for President," Billups said. "It's a beautiful situation. That's not the reason I like Barack, because he's black, I like him because of what he believes in and how he feels certain things and I felt that I needed to stand on that."
Realizing that Billups doesn't hate me like I expected him to and that he doesn't mind my annoying voice asking some non-basketball questions, I continued to ask what specifically about Obama makes him the candidate of choice. For Billups the most important issue was Obama's desire to "make everything equal and establish the middle class again."
"Obviously, I've been blessed enough where I'm not in the middle class anymore but all of my family is, all of my peoples is. I was middle to lower class coming up," Billups said. "That's who I'm fighting for not for me, I've been blessed enough, I'm fighting for everybody else in the neighborhoods."
The vibe in the visiting locker room is a little different than the home team's - a little more rowdy as Caron Butler and Nick Young are enjoying themselves in song and conversation despite the loss. In the back corner, Etan Thomas, who had 5 points and 2 rebounds in 17 minutes in the Wizards 117-109 loss to the Pistons, has his left foot in a basin of ice.
Etan Thomas can use some change on election day.
Thomas is the face of the political movement in the NBA, a title that he embraces as he's been interested in politics since a very young age.
Like Billups, Thomas isn't shy about his support for Obama and days before the election he fails to understand the undecided populace.
"I can go down the list of reasons to the war, to the economy, education, universal health care. I can go down the list," Thomas said. "I don't really see that on the other (Republican) side, see that as a kind of continuation of what we already have. They don't want universal health care, he (McCain) wants to stay in Iraq, not a permanent presence but a presence for a long time. It's clearly different, so I don't see how a lot of people are still undecided. You know where both people stand."
Thomas, who described his experience at the Democratic National Convention in Denver as "amazing," has been active in fundraising for Obama in the D.C. area and working with groups to help register people to vote. An anti-war demonstrator for many years, Thomas feels that the biggest change that Obama will bring to the White House is on foreign policy.
"I think our foreign policy is, the way that we go about dealing with other countries, it's American arrogance that isn't effective," Thomas said. "I think it kind of sends the wrong message and I think that with different people, whether they are enemies or not, you have to have some type of diplomacy you can't just go in and bully everybody because that's not going to work."
Occasionally interrupted by a laugh from the other side of the locker room, I notice that most of the Wizards players are dressed and packing their bags to get on the bus and the rest are just coming out of the shower. But Thomas, still in uniform, is getting excited as our conversation continues.
"That's a mindset that Republicans have that we're just going to bully the whole world. It just doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that (laughing). People aren't going to roll over, you don't want to unite different people against us, you don't want to do that, you don't want to make enemies where you can just sit down and talk about things. They think it's so ridiculous that you can just sit down and talk with somebody you don't agree with, I'm like come on now."
Billups says that politics isn't something that comes up in the Pistons locker room, while Thomas sees general excitement in the Wizards locker room, especially amongst the younger players. Although both have publicly issued their support for Obama, they don't speak for why more NBA players don't do more outside of their sport, in the political arena.
"I think most of the guys are for Obama," Thomas said looking around the Wizards' locker room. "There's something that Obama is speaking to them. When he breaks down different things that aren't fair that aren't the way they're supposed to be it gets people's attention."
Thomas had a chance to meet Obama and was surprised when the Presidential hopeful had actually read Thomas' speech at an anti-war rally and started breaking down specific aspects of it. Overwhelmed, Thomas said Obama's interest in what he had to say "threw him off" and was met with the initial reaction of "wow."
Sweating a little less after a few minutes of conversation, I asked Billups what he will be doing on election night and he said he had no idea because he would be out of the country preparing for the Pistons Wednesday night game in Toronto (not anymore) so I seized the opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a long time - I apologized to him.
I apologized on behalf of the city of Toronto and the entire Raptors organization for letting him go and my conscious was clear. I just hope he didn't notice that my arm pits were drenched in sweat.
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