- [Announcer] Production and distribution of City Club Forums and ideastream public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.

(upbeat electronic music) (bell rings) - Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland.

I'm Dan Moulthrop, I'm the Chief Executive here also a proud member.

Great to have you all here in person, give yourselves a round of applause for being in something in person.

(people clapping) Thank you for being here today.

It's part of our KeyBank Diversity Thought Leadership Series also presented with our in partnership with Velocity, our program today, League Leaders: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the NBA and the WNBA.

Six years ago, LeBron James and several other players on the Cleveland Cavs and the Brooklyn Nets made national news after they warmed up on the basketball court wearing t-shirts with a simple message; "I can't breathe".

Those were the last words of Eric Garner a black man killed earlier that summer by a New York City Police Department Officer.

Critics called on the NBA to find the players, but the NBA did not find the players.

In 2020, WNBA players dedicated the entire season to Breoanna Taylor in the "Say Her Name" Campaign.

A campaign that brought awareness to black female victims of police violence.

Players wore "We are Breoanna Taylor" on their t-shirts and said proceeds to the Breoanna Taylor Foundation.

These are just two examples of many, many examples throughout all the sports really, but leading from the NBA and the WNBA.

Their players have been broadly outspoken on topics ranging from mental health to police brutality, to equal pay and next year the NBA All-Star Game will be coming to Cleveland, another cause for a round of applause please.

(people clapping) Which puts us on the international stage and provides a unique opportunity for the NBA to engage the community in conversations and action around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

So, today we're gonna talk about the ways in which the past year has reshaped, how these two leagues engage their athletes and fans to become allies and advocates for social change.

Our panelists today, we've got Oris Stuart he's Chief People and Inclusion Officer of the NBA, also Bonnie Thurston Director for WNBA Player Programs and at the WNBA.

And we have Kevin Clayton of the Cleveland Cavaliers he's Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement there.

It is so great to have you here.

Welcome, welcome to The City Club.

(people clapping) So Oris Stuart I'd like to start with you and sort of broadly around this issue of Diversity Equity and Inclusion and Justice, social justice.

This has become, this all used to be sort of a set of kind of issues on the fringe of what the league was about, they are much more central today.

How has that happened and what does that mean in this moment?

- Well first thanks for, thanks for the question and I want to thank the KeyBank and The City Club and the, the other sponsors certainly the Cavaliers for having us here and hosting this conversation.

And Dan you said that these are issues that want to fringes and I would just challenge that a bit because I believe certainly from my experience with the league, not only the six years I've been there, but growing up loving the game and watching the players, this has been these have been issues that have been central to who we are central to our brand and have largely informed you know, the way that we've gone about our business so, certainly there's a level of focus and energy and attention now that we have not seen before, but I'd like to believe the reason that we've gotten to this point is because these were fundamental values and things that we cared in our players, in our owners, our fans cared about equally.

- And so we've all experienced this pandemic this COVID-19 pandemic.

We all experienced this movement for social justice that has taken up much of the... - We're going to change out your mic, real quickly here.

There you go.

All right, keep going.

- Well done.

- Thank you.

- Is that better?

- I think so.

- Okay terrific, terrific.

(Bonnie laughs) - [Dan] Let me put on your tie, just keep talking, you're good.

- So we've, we've gone through this.. - Hang on to that too.

(people laughing) - We've got through this, this period of, of dramatic change and challenge and it's forced us all to come to terms with what's happening in the world around us.

We've seen things that you know, some of us has seen before but some haven't, we've had to come to terms with what society is really like for, for folks that we, you know, might not have spent as much time focusing on.

And so, for us this conversation is focused, this.. the energy we're spending, the investments we're making, it really is about taking the role that we believe we have a responsibility to take and a role I think we uniquely can play and really bringing people together.

- [Dan] Mhmm.

- We believe the focus that you're seeing with us is in recognition that sports like perhaps only music and food brings people together across differences, right?

It's, we provide an opportunity for people to to engage and to celebrate, and given that, given that unique place we have, given the follow ship our players have, this is a, this is something that it's really important to us.

And so, you've seen, you've seen the things we've done around the league, you've seen the things we've done in the communities and, and we're going to keep, keep at it.

- Oris Stuart is Chief People Inclusion Officer with the NBA, Bonnie Thurston with the WMBA.

Talk a little bit about.. and by the way we're in the finals right now, right?

Game three tonight.

- That's right.

- I'm told to instruct you to tune in at 9:00 p.m. - ESPN2.

ESPN2 , Phoenix, Chicago.

But Bonnie, this whole, this whole season, the last two seasons, I mean this is.. when you were, when the players were in the WNBA's bubble.

I mean, this has been an intense time for the WNBA.

- Yeah.

You know Dan in your opening remarks you mentioned the NBA players wearing the "I Can't Breathe" t-shirts.

That same year, six weeks before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, WNBA players were wearing black t-shirts that were not their shooting shirts.

They wore shirts that said, that bore the names of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the police officers who were killed in Dallas.

So WNBA players are not new to social justice.

I think what has changed is how closely we're working with them.

We are working in partnership with the WNBPA which is the Players Association for the WNBA and it's really player driven and I think what we've seen is players have just not wanted to "shut up and dribble" to quote LeBron James and we are here to support that and to do what we can to enable them to be the best kind of advocates that they can be on the issues that are important to them so, and these conversations I think have always been important, but they're really important right now because I think we're making moves in the right direction.

- [Dan] I mean its interesting the the players would, regardless of what the league decided to do the players are going to find a platform to speak about these things.

And it's really different though, for the WNBA to say: "Here, use our platform, don't just go on that other radio show or that podcast or something use this platform here".

- Yeah, use our Instagram handle and have conversations with people like Raquel Willis and Kimberle Crenshaw Janai Nelson from the NAACP LDF have those conversations for our fans to hear them too.

- [Dan] Mhmm.

Kevin Clayton you're with the Cavs.

What are the conversations like with the players that we love here?

- Yes.

So also thank you for Dan allowing me to be part of this discussion.

When I think back actually to George Floyd, when that incident happened and Mr. Floyd was murdered and I think about our coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Koby Altman how they immediately had a statement that they put out and that was on their own, the organization followed.

And we didn't just follow with a statement, we followed with action.

We also connected with our players, what are you thinking about this?

What are you feeling about this?

And I remember one of the most profound conversations that I've had since I've been with the been with the team for the last two and a half years, is we had our ownership group connect with the players on a Zoom call.

What are you all thinking?

What are you all feeling?

What do we need to do to support what's important to you?

And there's a number of things that have come out of that, let it be conversations and resources we're gonna have to help the community from the digital divide standpoint because around education that was huge for one of our players.

When we think about making statements and what does those statements look like it's also contributing to different communities that are in need in Cleveland.

So it wasn't just making a statement, but you had to start there, because you had to actually say what you believe and then walk that with the talk and that's what we've been able to do and we continue to do that because we believe that we have a real obligation from a civic engagement standpoint that it's not just who's on the court, it's also what those players do off the court and support the entire mission of our organization.

And that's with all of the teams as well, but for us that is a core value of who the Cavs are.

- [Dan] Kevin Clayton with the with this season that is just beginning right now, the.. what are the issues that, that we're gonna...

I mean it just seems silly to say that we're going to see on t-shirts, but, but what I mean is, what are the issues that are front of mind right now for your players?

- Alright, so the players relief is we've engaged with them is really a carry over from last year.

So it wasn't in result of what happened with George Floyd let's have a meeting and do things, it's been a continuation.

So some of the things in which we are working on as I mentioned around the digital divide in which we are bringing some resources that will be announced next week to help Cleveland and it came from the players telling ownership: "These are some of the things we want to do".

when we think about also from a community giving standpoint, you know we have a significant giving platform of which we are in communities across all demographics.

So it's not just African-American or, or black or white or what have you, it's all demographics in which we have focused on.

So our players do have a giving heart and they have a giving will and giving spirit that is a part of, core of what we'll be doing.

So really focusing on education, we have a law enforcement program that we're working we're engaging youth in conversations with law enforcement and those are two of the platforms in which we're gonna continue to leverage this year.

- Could you talk more about that?

Because the.. so much of the activism that players have engaged in has been around police accountability.

- [Kevin] Yes.

So, so engaging with, directly with law enforcement is just, it's complicated.

- Right so, right after George Floyd was murdered our three general managers for the three sports teams here in Cleveland, the Cavs the Browns and Indians actually had a conversation around what can we uniquely do collective, how can we actually come together to leverage our brands in a way that we couldn't do as just single organizations?

So the three GMs then commissioned about 15 people off of each one of the teams in which we have been meeting for the last year weekly to work on three pillars; law enforcement was one, how do we close the gap between law enforcement officers and communities of color?

And the closing the gap is around the communication.

How do we have them understand each other's perspective?

So we've been meeting at each one each other's facilities around education, the digital divide and the third has to do with civic engagement around voting and voting has been a huge opportunity for this community not just from the last election which was presidential, but we have a mayor race right now.

And then next year we have a county executive race, so it's how do we get more people to vote in a nonpartisan way?

We just want to encourage voting.

So those are the three pillars and we came together because the strength of the three of our sports brand is stronger than one.

So those are really the focus areas that we've had.

- And I know that that sort of maybe not one of the three pillars, but another important issue has been kind of normalizing mental health issues as well.

- Right.

Which is actually an undertone to all three of those as well.

- Mhmm.

The, the law enforcement piece does seem challenging though.

And in, over this last year when we've seen homicide rates spike really across the country and these.. this place where we are and it's really a question for all of you, this place where we are as a nation regarding policing and police accountability is, it's very very challenging and nobody nobody wants unsafe streets, right?

Nobody but, everybody seems to want all of this to work better.

What role Oris Stuart do you think the NBA can play in in bringing more accountability, more justice and and better, safer, better policing safer communities?

- You know, there's a there's an important role we can play and a role we're we're trying to play.

We formed a Social Justice Coalition which is made up of our players, team governors and members of the league office all with the focus of following very similar pillars to what Kevin just mentioned but one of them is social is justice and equality and we have been very focused on supporting local state and federal legislation, targeting police reform, targeting more accountability and, and bridging that gap bridging that divide and so you know, through the social justice coalition there's a big effort on our part but you know we go way back to over the years having teams bring local youth and law enforcement together to have conversations, to build bridges, to build understanding about each other, you know we believe that that part of the gap is there's not enough familiarity, not enough comfort and as a result, not enough trust and through conversations through just getting on the court together and experiencing the game the game that you know many of us love that we can build kinship, we can build understanding.

And ultimately if I'm a young person in the city, I grew up in Philadelphia, I have a different sense of who these officers are rather than fear them, I engage them in a different way.

And certainly the officers can build much deeper connections you know, with the youth.

And so, there are things we've been doing over time but in particular through the Social Justice Coalition, we're very focused on building bridges, advocating reform and supporting legislation at the local state and national level.

- [Dan] Mhmm.

Bonnie Thurston the WNBA has a Social Justice Council.

Can you talk a little bit about that and how.. and the work they're doing?

- Absolutely.

So we started the Social Justice Council last summer when we had all the players together at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

It was very convenient because we knew what everyone's schedule was and when people might have more time to get together and have these meetings.

The council is made up of a number of WNBA players.

We've got representatives from the league and the union as well as a number of advisors in very specific areas that are important to the players.

We have used that council to kind of inform some of the work that we're doing as well as to hold important conversations because, kind of alluded to it before but it's the first step in really becoming an advocate or an activist is to really understand what it is that you're advocating for, understand the issue in its entirety.

And so we've engaged people like the legend professor Kimberle Crenshaw to help us out with some of the work that we're doing.

Raquel Willis who I mentioned before, Carolyn Dewitt from Rock the Vote so, the areas that are important to the players in the 2021 the now concluding 2021 season that they chose to focus on and again, this is all player led.

We work arm-in-arm with them, but they have kind of identified the issues that are most important to them so, one of them is Health Equity with a focus on mental health.

The second one is LGBTQ+ rights with a focus on trans inclusion in sports.

And the third is voting rights, which is important to all of us clearly.

- [Dan] Totally.

There's a.. you brought up the LGBTQ inclusion and specifically trans inclusion in sports.

That is not if you will, "a slam dunk" in every sport in every league.

(Bonnie people laughing) Thank you.

- You had to go there Daniel, had to go there.

- Thank you.

Appreciate the encouragement.

Thank you.

(people laughing) But no, in all seriousness not every league is embracing trans athletes in the same way.

- [Bonnie] Mhmm.

You know, if you listen to.. or if you pay attention to what's going on across this country where over 100 anti-trans bills have been introduced this year, 2021 has been the worst year for anti LGBTQ legislation since I believe 2015 when it comes to state, state laws.

Trans kids are not a threat, so stopping kids stopping.. (people clapping), I'm also gonna give myself a plug here.

I'm the co-founder and co-chair of NBA Pride which is the first LGBTQ+ employee resource team for, within professional sports.

(people clapping) Let me keep going!

No, thank you, thank you.

- You all are now.. You have to applaud after every phrase that she.. (people laughing) - Should I just say slam dunk, will that work?

(people laughing) No so, so I you know, we all know the benefits of playing sports, right?

That's kind of why we all do what we do, like it makes a difference and sports do bring people together but kids are not a threat and allowing kids to play sports that align with, on the teams that align with their gender identity, is not earth shattering, you know it's not, it's not, it's easy, that's low hanging fruit as they say, right?

The thing that I think we need to keep in mind but one of the arguments that people make is that, you know cis-gender kids are not gonna be able to win.

Well, the last time I checked, most of the winners in girls and women's sports are cisgender.

So, it's not really the problem that people are making it out to be.

- [Dan] Mhmm.

It doesn't seem to me to be a big threat in at the professional level either or the collegiate level or I mean, but I I don't know what I don't know about why people get upset about these things.

Was it problematic or challenging at all for the WNBA to come out in support of trans athletes the way that it did?

- I think it was a slam dunk.

(people laughing) (people clapping) We..

I will say that the WNBA and the NBA have amazingly committed leaders from Adam Silver to Cathy Engelbert who's the WNBA Commissioner and everyone in between including Oris who leads our diversity efforts.

It wasn't hard.

Kathy Behrens is the president of Social Responsibility and Player Programs for all of our leagues and she years before we even started, the ERT was doing this work.

So you know it's just, it's just natural for us It's kind of you know, we say it a lot, it's in our DNA, but it really really is.

I mean, I have been working at the WNBA for I'm on my 17th season now and I have been an out.. queer woman there the whole time.

I have raised a family with the money that I've made from you know, a league that is comprised largely of black women and a lot of queer women, you know and I don't take that lightly.

(people clapping) - I want to switch topics a little bit here come to you Kevin Clayton about what.. a lot of people in this room will understand to be like, something that's very important in Ohio, but it's also happening around the country with regard to education.

There's a series of, of bills and kind of a movement throughout state legislatures around the country against a full teaching of history and against con historical records that might make people feel uncomfortable and so forth.

I'm probably not phrasing any of this correctly as, as somebody who was a high school teacher who taught concepts that made people feel uncomfortable because I believe that's how you learn.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around why people are so opposed to these things but, I I have to imagine that the players are aware of this.

This is often called like, you know "Anti-Critical Race Theory" but, anyway the players must be aware of this and they have some serious platforms, and what are they thinking about?

What are they doing?

How are they reaching out to state legislators at all to sort of say: "Hey we'd really, we really want to support a full education for children".

- Yeah so we are aware of the issues and as you said, it's critical race theory that actually is kind of a camouflage to deal with no discussions about race, no discussion about diversity, no discussion about inclusion.

If you just think about the hypocrisy of that, how could you not have a conversation about any of those?

But what they've done is they've said: "Hey, critical race theory".

So there have been several bills in which have actually been slowed through Congress or I should say slowed through the legislature here from a player perspective, I've not talked to any of our players about that, I do know where our players stand about fairness and equality and humanity for everybody.

So it's a consistent platform, but I will tell you it's something that the Three Team Alliance is dealing with, it's something which each one of our teams separately, and from uniform standpoint are dealing with, because it really would undermine really humanity and society if we did not have conversations dealing with the issues and challenges of race, equity and fairness.

\ So we stand on the side of humanity, we stand on the side of rights for everybody and it's something in which we watch very closely.

- [Dan] Mhmm.

Oris Stewart are you.. (people clapping) Are you hearing these kinds of conversations happening around the country right now?

I mean this is a national phenomenon.

- It is and if I could just say, you know my father was a history teacher and so (Oris chuckles) but so for better, for worse I grew up around dinner learning history and having all kinds of amazing conversations but, you know his philosophy, I know many of us have heard this from other places, if you don't know your history you're doomed to repeat it, right?

And part of, I believe part of the reason or what contributes to the situation we're in is just not a deep enough appreciation for what got us here for what's put us in the situation that we're in individuals, groups, and collectively.

And so, so we have to have those conversations and I think what you're seeing or vested interest, you know not prepared for open to the conversation but we have to break through, we have to have these conversations to be able to build the capacity to work through our differences.

And, and let me just say, there's so much more that we have in common, if we can get to it, then what keeps us apart but we just can't seem to get to discover those similarities and those connection points and so for me, the journey to, to progress or the path to progress, the path to or inclusion in a more organic way, is building a deeper appreciation for who we are, building a deeper appreciation for our respective journeys and respect for those respective journeys and then giving us the capacity to talk and work through our differences.

And so we've got to keep fighting, we've got to keep working through it and we certainly will continue to do our part as much as we can.

- Oris Stuart from when you look across the league and Bonnie when you look across the WNBA, are there players or teams who are doing things in this vein around DE&I work, around community engagement that you're particularly excited about the holdup as a model?

Oris let's start with you.

- Well let me celebrate the Cavs!

(people laughing) (people clapping) Let me celebrate the Cavs I mean and I say that with all sincerity, you know Kevin, Nick, you know, Len, you know they have very early on said: "If there's something that the league wants to do or something, a way that we can contribute a way that we can advance the conversation of inclusion from our place in the world and our place in the market, we're, we're on board".

And so they have always been supportive and not only supportive, but they have been leaders in terms of identifying programming and and creating opportunities.

So, certainly the Cavs have been, you know major contributors and you're seeing things all across the league.

We have a award, we call the "Inclusion Innovation Award" and we designed that just to recognize those teams first of all to motivate teams to continue to push the envelope but also to recognize those teams that are really focused on these topics and and inventing and trying new things and breaking through.

And so, over the years that we've given that award out you know, there've been, you know a different team each year that has, has have been honoring.

So, I just think it just goes to show this is something we all care deeply about and good work is happening around the country.

- Bonnie.

- Yeah, absolutely.

I think a lot of our teams are really doing a great job and there's been a focus from the league to help push diversity hiring practices when co.. particularly when coaching and front office vacancies occur.

So there is a diversity hiring taskforce that's taken place or sorry, that has been kind of organized, I guess for lack of a better term.

And so the work there is to try to make sure we have better representation of people of color, people of various kind of gender experiences if you will, in these roles.

And what we've seen is a lot of retired WNBA players are now moving into the ranks in both WNBA teams and NBA teams.

So we've got, currently we have, of the 12 WNBA teams, six have women head coaches, four of those head coaches are former WNBA players, three of those coaches are black women.

So we're getting there, it's..

I'd like to see a little bit more, but we're getting there.

- [Dan] Mhmm.

Could you share the story of we were talking before about about the Lynx the Minnesota Lynx and Layshia Clarendon.

Could you share a little bit about, about Layshia's journey?

Because I know that's another barrier that's been broken.

- So Layshia Clarendon is a guard for the Minnesota Lynx.

Layshia is non-binary and uses all pronouns, so Layshia in broadcasts you'll routinely hear Layshia spoken about as: she, he, they, them Layshia doesn't care, just use Layshia's name.

Layshia has had, has been publicly talking about the top surgery that they had to better align with the gender identity experience that they're having.

And Layshia has been at the forefront of our conversations about trans inclusion and is a member of the WNBA Social Justice Council.

- [Dan] Top surgery we should explain is, is basically a double mastectomy.

- That's correct.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah so Layshia started the season on the New York Liberty and was waived and was picked up by the Minnesota Lynx and has been thriving there I mean, the optics may have seemed like there was something else at play but at the end of the day, sometimes it's just basketball decisions and I think that's what happened there because obviously there was not any kind of, you know prohibition about Layshia playing in the league.

We're an inclusive league, we lead with inclusion and so there was never any doubt that Layshia had a place in this league.

- It's, it's..

I asked you to share that story because it really is a story of the leadership of the WNBA.

It's hard to imagine something analogous happening in almost any other league.

So congratulations.

(people clapping) - I wish I could take the credit for that slam dunk.. - Well I mean, yeah.

(Bonnie laughs) You know we're gonna move to audience questions in a second but I, I just wanted to kind of close this portion on on asking you all to reflect a little on kind of how much we ask of our athletes.

Sometimes I think of it, when I think about Layshia or Colin Kaepernick or Greg Louganis or so many others, Michael Sam we ask so much of them and we ask them to do.. everything that we're asking of them to do it in the public spotlight, under intense scrutiny knowing that no matter what they choose, there's going be a large vocal group who will hate it and let you know that they hate them for it.

Oris what's that like for players?

- Well it's a, it's a great responsibility and it may even be unfair to a certain extent, right?

Because these players, these athletes have dedicated their lives to their craft, to their sport.

They have, you know focused all of their energy and attention and we as fans and as followers often put our ambitions and our hopes and dreams you know, on them.

And it may or may not be fair but, but players, you know, recognize that responsibility certainly many of the ones that I have the privilege of working with they recognize the followership that's there and you know really try to, to be true to that, you know, they.. but they also at the end of the day, have their own lived experiences and so they've got to be true to those lived experiences as well and so, so therein lies a challenge.

You've got a whole world looking looking out to you to represent them, but ultimately you've got to represent what's true to you.

So, it is a challenge in what, you know you heard Bonnie mention the support that we provide for our players and in our.. and that support largely comes in the way of helping them recognize the impact they have on their fans, helping them recognize that what's most important is for them to have informed points of view, right?

And to make sure that they've prepared themselves for whatever position you're going to take and then to stick with it and, and to, to do the work do the, research and to be convicted and to stick with it and recognize that there are going to be folks who, you know support you and those who don't but, you know, I do I do wonder how fair it is for us, you know as fans to to expect so much of them, you know when, you know they've really dedicated their lives not necessarily to answering those issues but really to performing at the most elite levels in their particular crowd.

- Kevin Clayton.

- In my experience in the last three years since I've been with the team, what I've seen is that those players that we asked to do things, they also want to do those things.

So you know, as Oris references, you know the demands that we put on them, a number of players are out front and they really want to participate and they want to use the platform so their voice can be heard, which we support wholeheartedly.

- [Dan] Mhmm, Bonnie.

- Yeah I mean I think I agree with you that a lot of times those players do want to do things, but at the end of the day, we also have to recognize that as Oris mentioned, we are all human.

There are people in this room going through things that we don't know about right now, right?

We're just not in the public eye.

So that's also where the mental health support comes in very, very strongly.

We, both NBA and WNBA have put a lot of focus on making sure that teams offer adequate mental health support to the players, as well as at the league office.

Like we've done lots of, kind of mental health check-ins with our players so they..

I mean they're on Zoom most of the time but, we had.. we made sure we had a sports psychologist in our bubble in person so, that's kind of.. we do, we do ask a lot of them but we also have to be there to support them and, you know there are times when they're not gonna be able to do all the things that we ask of them and we just have to be able to pivot quickly and.. - [Dan] Yeah.

And I suppose you have to balance too.

I mean like, create room for for those who want to be vocal activists and create room for those who would just who may be a little more introverted, maybe just want to keep to themselves.

- Yeah I mean you also have to recognize that there is such a thing as kind of the social justice fatigue you know, people become tired of fighting and, and speaking up and it's.. you kind of want more people to kind of raise their voices and become more of a chorus than having a soloist.

- [Dan] Yeah.

Bonnie Thurston is Director of Player Programs for the WNBA.

Kevin Clayton is with us as well, he's Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement for the Cleveland Cavs.

Oris Stewart Chief People and Inclusion Officer at the NBA.

We're going to move to audience questions now.

I'm Dan Moulthrop with The City Club by the way for our listening audience.

If you have a question, we've got a couple of microphones and you can.. and we've got them staffed as well.

So if you have a question just feel.. our staff will help you get to the microphone there.

If you are listening on our live stream or on the radio, you can text your question to 330 541 5794 or you can tweet it at The City Club and we will work it into the program.

I think we're ready for our first question.

- Hello, so I have a question.

So we all know the NBA has a huge following, they have the fans, the money.

I just want to hear a little bit about how the NBA is supporting the WMBA because the crowds are not as big you know, is it possible to have a New York Knicks Day at the New York Liberty game, you know or a Lakers Day at the Sparks game?

How.. can you speak a little bit Oris about how the NBA is supporting the fan base and the crowds for the WNBA?

- Yeah, sure I'll, I'll take a stab and then Bonnie will have a, I'm sure have a point of view as well.

And I would just start out by saying, you know the NBA is just about to tip off our 75th season.

And so there's a lot of history, that's gotten us to this point and so it is.. and I know there's a lot of focus on, the continued growth of the W and the success they've had quite frankly, particularly over the last number of years in terms of growth in fans, growth in merchandising sales and just general interest and so that's something we're really excited about.

But they're in their 25th year, right?

And so you really are talking about two leagues that are very different stages of experience and maturity.

And so we recognize as.. and I heard Adam use this phrase recently, big brothers of the W, that there's a particular role we have to play as a league, our players hopefully you've seen the support our players around the league have given to their sister players in the W or to their fellow colleagues in the W, and it's a it's something that we're, we're very focused on.

The kinds of activations like you described are things we're actually working on, you know co-marketing efforts as well.

But, I would just say that, you know we we are excited about the growth that's happening and some of what you've seen is because of folks like Bonnie folks like Kathy Engelbert who she referred to earlier who's a commissioner there, and and just efforts by a lot of folks to really give the W the attention it deserves.

They play a beautiful game and more people need to see it.

- Yeah I'll say it's really nice to be in this room and be around everyone today, but I think there's still a lot of fear, right?

And so I think, right before the 2020 season kind of going into the 2020 season, there was a lot of momentum and the WNBA was getting a lot of attention.

And then we went and played without fans.

(Bonnie chuckles) And then we, you know so then we had this year where, we're kind of getting fans back in the buildings again and I personally, you know I have children who are too young to be vaccinated so I have some fear about going into some spaces where there might be large crowds regardless of vaccination status.

So I think we are getting to the point where, you know we're getting those buildings a little more full but I think there's still some trepidation around it.

We are seeing tremendous support from the NBA not just the league itself and the teams but, you know I, I'm headed to game three tonight after I leave here which is in Chicago, thankfully that worked out really well.

(people laughing) But, game two which was in Phoenix took place.. actually the, the Suns and the Trail Blazers played on the Mercury Court in a preseason game that day.

When they left, rather when the game was over, those guys changed, they came back, they sat courtside.

Both teams sat courtside, stayed for the whole entire game.

If you look, there are pictures on social media of Devin Booker with his little camera taking pictures you know, and to watch them cheer and dance and, you know the WNBA is cool, and the WNBA is great basketball.

You know, Kobe Bryant was a huge fan which a lot of people know, and the that iconic orange hoodie picture gets a lot of play but you know, the best is yet to come.

We keep growing.

And I think the NBA will continue supporting us and, and hopefully those fans will start coming to our buildings too.

- Kevin Clayton go ahead.

- If I could add one thing to that and really want to talk to what Oris mentioned.

Cleveland does not have a WNBA team, however we're working from an All-Star standpoint, the NBA All-Star Game which we talked about will be here.

With our partnership with Velocity and the sports commission, we're building in a platform for WNBA players to come during the NBA All-Star Game for their messages to be heard in the community.

So that our young ladies and young men and what have you can also be around the WNBA stars during the NBA All-Star Game.

So that's an example of the NBA leveraging its asset to give a platform for the WNBA.

- [Dan] Can we get an exhibition game?

- That is way above my pay grade.

(people laughing) - Oris can make it happen.

- We'll put that into process.

(people laughing) - That'd be great.

Next question.

- Good afternoon.

In July of 2020 the State Board of Education of which I am a member, in response to the murder of George Floyd we passed a resolution condemning hate, racism, white supremacy and advancing equity and opportunity for students of color.

Elections happen, we lost some supporters and we gained some folks who deny the existence of systemic racism.

And so as a result on Wednesday, that resolution was rescinded by a vote of 10 to seven.

And so the reason I'm bringing this up is because of Dan's excellent question when he talked about the bills that are going around, that are just going into our classrooms.

And so with all of this happening, our students need help.

They need help in understanding the importance of differences and the importance of, of being anti-racist.

And so my question to you is: What is the NBA and the WNBA doing to actually go into our classrooms and try to head off all this destructive, toxic stuff that's going on in the country?

- Yeah so, it's, it's a great question.

And, and I appreciate you asking it.

And I would really look back to, to a history a long history of our players in particular, being.. connecting with our, our youngest fans and spending time in the classroom and building those relationships.

And that's something that continues with.. you were, you were speaking specifically to, you know engaging our students in a, different conversation, a conversation more focused on kind of the current environment.

And so, let's be clear, this is something our players are.. is very important to them personally, you know whether it's in their market community where they play their games, or if it's in their home community which you see quite a bit of, our players going home to their local community where they grew up and engaging there, the students and young people in those communities.

I've seen an incredible amount of that kind of engagement.

And by the way, that doesn't get picked up on the media in the way that maybe it should or shouldn't but, that's where I see incredible, authentic, organic, deep engagement, because those players are known and loved in that community and then they know that community and so there's an incredible amount of that going on across our league, across, across the country okay I should say across of North America.

And, and so you can you can feel confident that those conversations and that support is happening.

- And I would say, across both leagues.

The WNBA and the NBA are both strongly committed to social responsibility and all of our teams have fantastic social responsibility departments who will go out and make those connections which, you know the Cavs do as well, make these connections in the community to go and kind of build relationships with schools.

I know I..

I read about the, the vote that you mentioned the 10 to seven vote around critical race theory.

And as I mentioned Kimberle Crenshaw who coined the term coined the term critical race theory and also intersectionality is one of the advisors to the WNBA Social Justice Council so, we're, we're very much in support of, of that work.

- In my comment, given the you referenced that from a local perspective offline, I would love to be able to connect with you.

It is the work also, the three team alliances who work the Cavaliers, but it's really having citizens like you bring that to us so that we can leverage our, our support behind it.

- Next question.

- And I like your mask I have the same one.

(Bonnie laughs) - First of all thank you for being here, once again.

Tony Peebles with Case Western Reserve University, I'm interested in the power of creating career opportunities, because part of any Diversity Equity Inclusion Program for various races and gender experiences is, the opportunity to get into maybe some of the off the court opportunities in professional sports, including the NBA.

We had the privilege of having Kevin Clayton bring a team to our campus and other campuses in the region to talk to those students about those opportunities whether it's in data science or in sales or management.

Can you guys elaborate a little bit about that as part of the platform for Diversity Equity and Inclusion within the NBA, and maybe specifically with the Cavs?

- Yeah it is the.. notion of creating awareness of the unique opportunities that are available in sports and then helping to prepare students as early as we can to, to consider those opportunities and prepare themselves is very, very much a focus of ours and I'll just give you a very specific example.

We recently launched a program we call "The Business Of Basketball" and that Business Of Basketball Program has a number of different threads but it's the future sales stars is a cohort underneath that, future analytics stars is another cohort.

And we're building out a whole focus on the the operational aspects of the on court experience, right?

So, so basketball operations as it were.

And we, we created those programs, you know, put the the opportunity out there and and had an enormous amount of applications of course we couldn't accommodate everyone that was interested but it affirmed that there's interest in a recognition that there's some unique things you can do in sports.

And so we've just got to find more capacity to touch more people but, we are gonna only.. we are only gonna succeed by reaching deeper into communities that represent our fans, that represent our players and bringing them into the game and and I'll just tell you and I, I grew up, you know I loved sports but I didn't think about sports in the context of working behind the game, like I, you know I thought about.. and I knew what was happening on a court, I knew about the basketball side, but there's an incredible opportunity on the business side and we have to get new energy, new ideas, new mindsets, different set of experiences so we can keep growing this game and so, very focused on it.

It also includes connections into HBCUs Historically Black Colleges and Universities, because they're a unique opportunity and access point for us to better represent the diversity of our fans so, you'll certainly.. and if you have any particular interests we can connect you know, certainly students at your institution, we can make sure they're aware of these opportunities but, it's something we're very invested in and the future of our game, the future of our business really depends on it.

- Kevin.

- Yeah, so Anthony thanks for the question.

And one of the things that we've done and I want to talk about from top down and bottom up.

So, as you know we do have the program that's Diversity Inclusion Sports Career Combine.

And if you think about what a combine is from a NFL standpoint, you bring together all this talent and you have opportunities that await these college athletes, so we've done that something very similar to have all of our teams all our departments, available to bring students to this particular combine.

Recently we've been engaged in conversation with CMSD to do a similar program across multiple teams, pro teams here in Cleveland, to do a career sports combine for high school students.

So that's kind of the bottom-up top-down method so, one of the things, and I really appreciate what you said.. - [Dan] That sounds so much more fun than a job fair.

- Yeah I know right?

(Kevin and people laughing) So the evolution, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah so, so what I appreciate about what you said.. appreciate about what you said Oris, was the fact that, thinking about a career in sports isn't something that really is like at top of mind for young black and brown kids and communities.

So what we've done is taken that opportunity to the community so that they can see, "Hey I can be an accountant for the Cavs, or I can work in marketing or, or data research".

So you'll see that coming very soon, the top, top down bottom up theory, okay.

- And just to add to that, although you didn't ask about the WNBA I won't hold it against you but, (Janet and people chuckle) you know, Oris can speak to some.. not asking you to speak to them but there are some programs at the NBA that, like the Assistant Coaches program with the G League that attracts a lot of retired WNBA players and on the player program side, what I focus on primarily is off court everything off court for WNBA players.

And so we've done a series of career empowerment sessions where we've brought in.. we try to always include retired players in these conversations so that players really can see themselves, but we've done conversations on broadcasting, on coaching, on working in a front office and, in addition to kind of having these conversations, they're able to network with those folks and we've seen an increase in the number I think I referenced it earlier but, the number of former WNBA players who are now working in NBA G league and WNBA offices.

- Awesome, next question.

- [Woman] Hello.

Thank you all so much this has been very interesting.

I had a question written that was partially answered but I'm going to take it another angle.

I love seeing these high school students here, and I know that my child's school is represented here and I would be so sad, if I could imagine that in a US history course they're not talking about the complexity of our racist history, so I.. we take critical race theory and I think hopefully many people in this room already learned that that's not what anyone's teaching in any high school, at all.

It's talking about, actually talking about racism and the idea that a teacher at your school could be fired because, they could lose their license because they talk about it, so I loved your last comment Mr. Clayton, about connecting to talk and I'm just wondering here if you could make a commitment to the community that you could, with the other Cleveland.. and maybe Ohio sports teams, make a commitment to have brave conversations to enter this conversation with our state legislature because it's really scary and there's only so much we can do.

So I'm not saying that you can commit to what you can do but can you commit to brave conversations with other sports teams to get engaged?

- So, thank you for putting me on the spot right now.

(people laughing) But also anybody that knows me knows that I'm not shy of the confrontation of the tough conversation.

So what I will commit to do is to bring that point to the other sports teams and put it at their doorstep and let them deal with it and I will make sure that we will continue to have dialogue with you and your colleague in the back that reference it to make sure that we're addressing this so, you have my commitment, that's what I will do.

I can't commit on behalf of the other teams, obviously.

- Go ahead.

- Hi, Becky Tally with KeyBank and first of all thank you from leading from the front.

Definitely appreciate everything that the NBA is doing and casting that shadow.

My question is, I know that there's been a lot in the media, recently with John Gruden.

And when you think about what's happening there with the NFL, you know obviously there's a lot of accountability and responsibility you've all talked about with the players.

How are you holding coaches accountable?

And when I think about that with our businesses, managers, leaders, being able to have a platform or forum in the communities to ensure that where we have individuals in leadership positions, that there's the same amount of accountability.

- Well, well I'm glad..

I'll jump in here.

- Please, go ahead.

- I'm glad you brought up coaches because I didn't and I talked, I'll speak for myself I talked a lot about the engagement of our players and these topics of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Social Justice, but but our coaches are in this conversation too.

And they're in this conversation with our players because it's important to our players and if our coaches are.. and our general managers are gonna get the best out of our players and they're gonna be able to connect with them, they've gotta be in support of them.

So those conversations are happening in the in the practice court and they're happening in a locker room and they're happening on the on the plane going from game to game.

But our coaches have also taken a stand on these issues and, and so in the midst of the the summer of 20, the summer of 20, you know they came together in their own way to advance a advance a topic, and advance a framework to support the players and to focus on these issues.

So our coaches are very much in the mix.

And your question specifically was: "How are we holding them accountable"?

And I would just say, just the nature of who we are in our game and who our players are and and who our team owners are and who our commissioner is, I just think it's, you know maybe a little bit of a different issue with us.

Our, our coaches are.. they know who we are.

You don't, you don't get to coach at the NBA level unless you know, and have, have been in the game at a at a way in a certain way.

And so I just, I would just be really, really surprised and certainly disappointed if, you know we had that kind of issue.

We have, we have our own challenges.. we're working through.

I'm hoping that that's not one of them.

- [Dan] Kevin.

- So if I could to speak on behalf of your Cavaliers, I got closer to our General Manager Koby Altman who's behind you, and our coach J.B. Bickerstaff the moment after the George Floyd murder because we aligned ourselves to talk about how we make sure the messaging goes down throughout the entire organization.

And with that, coach has been driving this whole connecting point that our reference with law enforcement and students, that was through coach Bickerstaff going back to the Coaches Association and also with NOBLE, which is National Organization of Black Law Enforcement officers.

Coach Bickerstaff drove that to say: "Cleveland will be the first, in which we're gonna have these critical conversations".

So to the point about accountability, our coaches just had a retreat to kick off our season which starts on October 22nd.

They had a retreat about a month ago in which I was on their agenda to talk about here's all the things in which we.. will be doing this year.

Here's ways in which you can connect.

Here are the things from a value standpoint.

Here's all the things from a DE&I perspective that we're going to be doing so that they have a clear understanding.

And that was the first time since I've been here over three years that, I was part of the planning of the coaches from a strategic standpoint.

So those are the kinds of things that really matter because it's not just lip service, it's integrating it into their strategy and from a behavior standpoint.

- Kevin Clayton is with the Cleveland Cavs.

Bonnie Thurston with the WNBA.

Oris Stewart with the NBA.

Thank you all so much it's been a fantastic conversation.

A round of applause please.

(people clapping) There's a lot of notes of gratitude.

I'd like to offer to all of you for being a part of this conversation and especially those of you who had questions, I'm sorry we didn't get to all of them, but also to KeyBank and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission for teaming up to, to really focus our attention on this important issue.

And the.. and, we get to do this because the All-Star Game is coming to.. that's sort of the, extensively the reason we're doing this, but they.. they brought the draft, they brought the MLB All-Star Game I mean this is a.. a round of applause for the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission please.

(people clapping) So thank you so much for, for that work.

I also want to thank guests at tables hosted by KeyBank, Shaker HeightS High School, Velocity, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and Western Reserve Academy.

So great especially to have the students here with us today, we hope you enjoyed it.

Make sure to join us in person next week Friday, October 22nd, a late addition to our calendar, a debate on Issue 24 which is the charter amendment that would bring significant changes to police accountability in the city.

This issue has drawn some of the starkest distinctions between the two mayoral candidates.

And next Friday we'll talk about what it's all about and how this would actually change the city charter so please do join us for that.

As I said it's a late addition to the calendar so we're doing kind of a flash sale on tickets.

Get yours on the way out!

(people chuckle) But, but really do, do please join us.

If you've always wanted to come to a City Club Forum, it's, this is gonna be one you'll want to be at.

That brings us to the end of our forum today.

Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen friends of The City Club, our panelists, our forum is now adjourned.

(bell rings) (people clapping) - [Announcer] For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of The City Club, go to cityclub.org.

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