NBA teams wear shirts to honor victims of Thousand Oaks shooting

The shooting occurred just an hour outside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Before their Sunday night matchup, the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks will wear shirts to honor the 12 people killed in the latest mass shooting at Borderline Bar in Thousand Oaks, California, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Tania Ganguli. The bar is located just an hour outside of the Staples Center, where the team plays.

The Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks wore the same shirts on Saturday night for their game. The shirts had the names of all 12 victims on the back and the word “Enough” printed on the front.

This will be the Lakers’ first political statement since LeBron James joined the team in July. James is well known for his activism since he and his Heat teammates wore hoodies after the death of Trayvon Martin, and he called for social change alongside Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony at the ESPYs, among other events.

From Silver Screen and Roll’s Harrison Feigen: It’s not surprising that the Lakers want to get involved in the calls for change after this latest horrific act of violence, especially not with head coach Luke Walton so strongly addressing the shooting following the Lakers’ practice on Friday.

According to Lakers Nation’s Matthew Moreno, Walton said, “It breaks my heart to have to do this again, but our thoughts, our prayers, our love, is with those people suffering from that senseless shooting a couple days ago. It’s got to stop.

“But it’s important that we always talk about it instead of just pushing it to the side. We love basketball, we’re here to play basketball, but there’s bigger things going on. Obviously, with the wildfires, too, hope that people’s homes are OK and that they’re going to be safe.”