Heat's Solomon Hill stressing educational empowerment as social solution
To this stage, the Miami Heat’s camp at Disney World has been mostly about the basics, after the NBA’s four-month layoff due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
For forward Solomon Hill, there has been a similar, basic approach when it comes to the social-justice message he plans to share upon the league’s resumption.
Given the choice of a variety of profound messages to wear on the back of his jersey for the games at the Wide World of Sports complex, the veteran forward opted for the simplicity of “Education.”
To the 29-year-old, it is where the fight against systemic racism starts … and has to stop.
“My local school was Freemont,” said Hill, who attended middle school in Los Angeles’ South Central neighborhood, “and a kid got shot right before I was thinking of attending my local high school. A kid was shot right after school. So you think about when we send our kids to a school that may be underfunded, teachers are underpaid, we look at the facilities … we’re already setting up our youth for failure.
“One thing that I’ve been huge on is I shouldn’t have to leave my area of where I grew up in order to find what the world has defined as success. I shouldn’t have to. It’s always about making it out. It shouldn’t be about making it out. We should empower the people of our communities regardless of where they are.”
To Hill, it brings the education element full circle to what is currently playing out in streets across the country, in the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many other Black victims.
“When we talk about defunding the police, some people are drastically talking about cutting all the funds,” Hill said. “But it shouldn’t be that the nicest building in my area is a police station. It shouldn’t be like that. Kids should be able to go to schools in their area. They should be able to build wealth in their own areas and communities to build that community up.”
Even as a newcomer, acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies at the Feb. 6 NBA trading deadline, Hill has emerged as a voice of the team on the social front, profoundly compelling during the team’s Juneteenth video town hall last month.
“You hear about so much right now about the silence cannot be accepted anymore, and everybody now is looking for action,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I think we’re all trying to figure out, ‘OK, what are the next steps?’ And Solo has been great in directing the conversation and in guidance.”
For Hill, the path to something better meant matriculating to Fairfax High School and then going on to play at Arizona. But he said basketball being a way out isn’t the ultimate answer.
“Playing basketball or playing football or singing and rapping shouldn’t be the only way that we can be successful,” he said. “Every avenue should be available just like that is for anybody else. The school systems have to be reformed. We can’t outfit people to suppress their citizens with more equipment than we give our children.
“I should be able to get a fundamentally sound education in neighborhoods that need it, that want better for themselves. It shouldn’t be a struggle, or it shouldn’t be a fight.”
Which is why, to Hill, it is so confounding to ignore something as simple as the word that will be on the back of his Heat jersey starting Aug. 1 against the Denver Nuggets — “Education.”
“You create these restrictions on people who live in communities where the elementary schools, the middle schools are underfunded,” he said. “And so these kids, if you can’t give them a great education, what possibility do they have of becoming doctors, lawyers, all these titles and accomplishments that should be made available to everybody? But when you underfund elementary school, underfund middle school and then you want success at a high school level, it’s the same as training.
“We just don’t half-ass practice, half-ass workouts and think we’re going to win a championship. Everything we do from nutrition to the weight room to on the court is part of a culture and then sets the standards for competing for a championship. So we have to demand that at a local level, that our schools be taken seriously.”
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