Kyle Korver is stepping up.
He recently wrote an article for The Players' Tribune called "Privilege" in which he goes into detail about the events in his life that has made him realize that because he is a white man, he will never have to go through some of the events his teammates or friends that are people of color will have to go through.
What sparked his need to write the piece was after The Oklahoma Thunder's, Russell Westbrook was playing against Korver's team, The Utah Jazz, and a fan got into it with Westbrook and made some racially charged comments towards Westbrook. That set off a whole range of emotions for Korver, who remembered a different incident with his teammate Thabo Sefolosha, who in 2015, was wrongfully arrested and had his fibula broken by the NYPD during the arrest. Korver explained that when he heard about the situation was quick to put blame on Sefolosha rather than think about the entire situation.
Korver also sat down with his teammates, Ekpe Udoh, Georges Niang, and Thabo Sefolosha to talk about white privilege, racism in the NBA, the Westbrook incident, how the team decided to react to it, and how they can hold each other accountable.
In the video Korver made a really great point about how because of the color of his skin, he's able to avoid situations that people of color don't get to, saying,
"For me as a white man, I get to walk in and out of this conversation as easily as I want to. Like if I want to address this today I can, and if I don't feel like doing it tomorrow I don't really have to."
Many fans were thankful for The Players' Tribune for having the space to have these types of conversations.
Watch the entire discussion below.
Korver has been getting high praise from athletes from all sports for taking the step forward to open up the discussion.