Prison reform went mainstream after President Trump signed the First Step Act into law in December 2018.

And it’s not just the White House that’s gotten involved in criminal justice reform — celebrities like Kim Kardashian West have gotten involved as well. And now, the NBA is taking on the issue.

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Sacramento Kings recently hosted their second annual Team Up for Change summit, aimed at addressing social injustice across the country. Executives from both teams spoke about why it’s become such an important issue, particularly to their communities.

“Look, I think you own a team, you have a responsibility and a commitment to the community,” said Milwaukee Bucks Co-Owner Marc Lasry. “And that community is everybody. For us, what we try to do is continue to foster that relationship, try to at least have everybody involved, and try to use the team and who we are to sponsor them. It’s hard but that’s the responsibility we all have.”

View photos Alex Lasry, Marc Lasry, Paul E. Jacobs, and Chad Hewitte speak at the Team Up for Change panel. (Photo: Adriana Belmonte/Yahoo Finance) More

‘This was the place where everybody came talking’

Paul E. Jacobs, co-owner and vice chairman of the Sacramento Kings, explained that criminal justice reform hit close to home for the Kings community.

“This issue came to the Kings in a certain way because after the incident in Sacramento, the people came to the front of the arena to protest,” he said.

Back in March 2018, 23-year-old Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by police in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento, Calif.

Police had been responding to a call about an individual breaking car windows, encountered Clark, and chased him to his grandmother’s property. It was believed that Clark was carrying a weapon but this, in fact, turned out to be a cell phone. Following the shooting, people took to the streets to protest the use of force involved, which led to a delay in the start of a Kings game because of where its arena is located.

“We didn’t realize that it was going to be the level that it went to, and that this was the place where everybody came talking,” Jacobs said. “A couple games were shut down in the sense that fans couldn’t come in the doors. And our main owner, Vivek [Ranadive], got up and really set the stage for the Kings engagement with this issue, and gave a great speech about how we’re going to be engaged, how we wanted to do our part to make things better, and bring the community together.”

View photos Demonstrators protesting the shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police officers on Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP: Rich Pedroncelli) More

In the Milwaukee community, Bucks shooting guard Sterling Brown had a confrontation with police that later led to a civil rights complaint. In January 2018, Brown alleged that he was racially profiled in a Walgreens parking lot after officers used a stun gun on him “because he didn’t immediately remove his hands from his pockets, as ordered, while waiting for a parking citation,” according to ESPN.

Body camera footage later showed an officer stepping on his ankle and others mocking him. A federal civil rights lawsuit over the incident is heading to trial. Throughout the process, the Milwaukee Bucks organization has remained supportive of Brown.

Between Clark’s shooting and Brown’s encounter with police, this gave the Kings and the Bucks the inspiration to team up to host the first Team Up for Change summit in February 2019.

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