Let’s go outside the basketball. In the US, you were playing a bigger role as an athlete, especially on social issues. I know that as an NCAA star, you’ve attended a “College Game Day” in Wisconsin with a “Broke Athlete” sign. Also, you were involved with addressing the racial injustices. Do you believe an athlete can ignite a change within the society?
“Yeah, definitely. You’ve seen that happen all the time. Whether it’s college sports or professional sports, you see people who are passionate about something, believe in it and stand up for it. Good thing about sports is that it’s an escape for people. They can watch something, cheer for something, let go of their daily problems and focus on cheering for their team. Also, with all the attention you get, you’re able to voice your opinions about something and create change. It’s up to the individual. They have the platform for what they would like to do.”
*Wisconsin Badgers’ Nigel Hayes attended the College Game Day and unfurled a sign about financial compensation.
I’m gonna ask a question about the social media with an example: People talked about your quotes on New York when you sign with the Knicks. Everybody tweeted like Why did he become a Knick?** They misunderstood you and used bad words at you on social media. What do you say about social media with that?
“You gotta be careful with the social media. It can be good, and bad, depending on how it is. In the culture and times we live in now, people can go to Twitter and say whatever they want about you. And they can find a group of people that agree with them and try to spread the idea or message they want, regardless of whether it’s correct, incorrect or bad. Good and bad comes with everything in life. There is ying-yang. In social media, sometimes it can happen where a group of people put something out there and watch it catch fire and turn into something that wasn’t supposed to. But there are times where it can turn into something great. You just gotta take it with a grain of salt and realize the social media isn’t real. Me sitting next to you talking is real; me tweeting ‘I don’t like you’ or ‘I don’t like your shoes’ on Twitter isn’t real. It’s just a place people go to let out stress, say whatever they want behind a screen, get things off their mind and be a person they want to be. People go to the Internet to be other people. So, it kinda breaks the reality. You always gotta remember that social media isn’t real.”
“It’s too big. It’s dirty. There’s trash everywhere.” — Nigel Hayes in March
This morning he has a Knicks dealhttps://t.co/eQBPs8muXq
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) June 23, 2017
**Nigel Hayes, signed a contract with the Knicks after he said that New York is too big, dirty and there’s trash everywhere.
There are also efforts in Europe to protect players’ rights. Do you think those are enough?
“It’s always a great idea to protect the players. Because it’s a business at the end of the day, no matter how much you love basketball. There is money involved now, there is politics involved. There are fans and contracts and all that. You just wanna make sure that your best interests are taken care of because you, as a player, give your talents, body and your abilities to whatever organization you’re within. You need to make sure that you’re treated as fairly as possible. While you’re a player at the time, organizations are gonna be there longer than you will. You can only play for so long. So, you wanna make sure while you’re playing, you’re taken good care of, treated with respect and not treated like an item.”