Sacramento protests over the shooting of Stephon Clark blocked a freeway and spilled over to the NBA game between the Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks on Thursday, blocking most ticket holders from entering.
The NBA game protest highlight daylong demonstrations connected with the police shooting of Clark, 22, who authorities had chased and shot 20 times in his grandparents' backyard last Sunday, fearing he had a gun but was actually his cellphone, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Only 2,000 people appeared at the arena to see the game at the Golden 1 Center, the home arena for the Sacramento Kings. There are more than 17,000 season ticket holders.
Protesters chanted "Shut it down," as they lined outside the arena's entrance, with some holding Black Lives Matter banners, the Bee said, and arena security personnel locked entrances to the center and abandoned equipment outside.
"Stephon couldn't be here to watch a game," Brrazey Liberty, a musician and reported Black Lives Matter activist said, per the Bee. "These people aren't going to be here to watch this game."
Inside the Garden 1 Center, the basketball game was delayed and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive took to the public address microphone to speak about the protests, ESPN reported.
"We are so very sorry for your loss,'' Ranadive said, surrounded by some of the Kings players, ESPN noted. "We at the Kings recognize people's abilities to protest peacefully, and we respect that. We here at the Kings realize that we have a big platform. It's a privilege but it's also a responsibility.”
"It's a responsibility that we take very seriously, and we stand here before you, old, young, black, white, brown, and we are all united in our commitment. We recognize that it is not just business as usual, and we are going to work really hard to bring everybody together to make the world a better place, starting in our own community. We are going to work really hard to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.''
Sacramento Kings player Garrett Temple told the Bee he would have been alongside protesters if it wasn't for the game, which was delayed about 20 minutes.
"If I didn't have a job to do, I'd probably be out there with them, peacefully protesting because what's going on has to stop, it has to stop," Temple told the Bee. "I think the protest did what it was supposed to do. It brought light to what's going on; I think that's what protests are for. And after that something has to change.
There were mixed feelings on Twitter about Ranadive's comments.
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