I have been doing a research paper about athletes and activism. I chose this theme because I am an athlete, and I think that it is a very important theme. Because I can see how athletes are heroes without layers helping the black community. Here is an example of how athletes practice activism. The NBA super stars all participated in this act together including: LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Garnett, and Deron Williams. This act of activism occurred during a NBA game in the warm-up before a game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Nets. Several Brooklyn players wore I Can’t Breathe shirts during the warm up. They did this in support of the family of Eric Garner who died on 17 July after a police officer placed him in a chokehold when he was being arrested on suspicion of selling loose untaxed cigarettes.

"I can't breathe" were Garner's final words after an NYPD officer placed him in a chokehold during an altercation on Staten Island. Eric Garner was 45 when he was brutally murdered by New York police when he was arrested and detained with a forbidden key for selling cigarettes in Tompkinsville, the city's 'most republican' neighborhood. His overweight and the stress to which he was subjected in the arrest caused him to collapse, for which the fateful key of axfisia to which he was subjected was fatal. Despite warning 13 times that he could not breathe, none of the agents did anything to accommodate a detainee who had not resisted at the time of his arrest.The phrase has since become a rallying cry for protesters upset about police brutality, especially involving white officers and unarmed black men

This is what LeBron James said about the fatal accident: "Obviously as a society we have to do better, we have to have empathy

better for one another no matter what race you are, but it’s more a shout-out to the family more than anything".

This act were so impressive that the former president Barack Obama voiced his opinion about what happened and endorsing the acts these players, "they did right thing".