The Activist Side of Shabazz Napier

Last November, I was scrolling through the A Dime Back instagram feed. Up popped a picture of UConn’s star guard Shabazz Napier. It featured the young Roxbury, Mass. native standing with Boston mayoral candidate John Connolly. The caption was a ringing endorsement, although Connolly would eventually be defeated by current mayor Marty Walsh.

The next time I was in Gampel following a game, I caught Napier in a quiet moment and offered some sympathy on Connolly’s loss (I didn’t have a horse in the race, but no one likes to lose). Napier politely thanked me, with a cautious look in his eye. Then I told Shabazz that I had seen and enjoyed a video he had made for a Sociology class about other social issues [Edit: both the instagram picture and the video have since been removed]. Sensing the slight tension in the moment, I asked Shabazz if he wanted to sit down and do an interview — the catch being, we wouldn’t talk about basketball. Napier returned a sly grin — if you’ve seen a television camera catch him late in a UConn victory, you’ve seen the same look — and said “I do like talking about things other than basketball.”

That conversation happened early in UConn’s season. Before the buzzer-beating win over Florida. Before the tedious push of conference play stretched the student-athletes thin and sapped them of their free time. Napier and I never did sit down for that interview.

But something else interesting happened. After UConn’s February 15th victory over Memphis, the media swarmed several Husky players for interviews. Napier, as always, drew the most attention. I sat back and listened. Napier answered the questions you would expect: How did you pull off the win? Was this a signature victory? How does this improve the team’s confidence? I hung around with Tim Fontenault of the Daily Campus until the beat guys had their material before sidling up to Napier to ask a different kind of question.

I asked Napier if he thought the NCAA should be covering more of the players’ expenses. I asked if he thought full cost of attendance scholarships would benefit the players who come after him. I didn’t expect his response:

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“My college experience has been tough,” said Napier. “We don’t have enough money sometimes, and there’s so many rules now that you can’t take money from anybody [to help]. That’s understandable but, when it gets down to it, we make so much money for the NCAA and they don’t give us any money at all. [They] expect us to starve, or expect us not to eat, it’s kinda tough.”

“You’ve got to learn how to save your money. You’ve gotta learn how to do a lot of [other] things that are kind of unnecessary. We come here to get a good education, and that’s really important, but at the end of the day, if I can’t study because I’m hungry, I’m not going to be able to do well in class. And [then] I won’t be able to play. There’s a lot of things that they don’t really take into perspective.”

Upon publishing the piece, the reaction was quick, and varied. Without citing any particular party, some lambasted the NCAA for their current policies, some attacked Napier for overstating the issue, and some attacked me for publishing the divisive quotes in the first place.

The remarks struck up a conversation in Connecticut, but a week later, they were all but forgotten. Having seen the backlash that came from publishing the article, I decided not to ask Napier about it again until his season was over. I decided it wasn’t my place to insert myself as a distraction in his season if he wasn’t asking me to. For the rest of UConn’s home season, Napier and I spoke only about basketball.

So imagine my surprise when this weekend’s Final Four coverage was seized with headlines like: “Shabazz Napier: ‘there are hungry nights that I go to bed and I’m starving’”

After our brief conversation in February, and after weathering the relatively-tame backlash, Napier waited until every camera and microphone in sports media were in front of him to drop the same staggering quote.

For the record, there’s almost certainly some hyperbole at play here. While it’s not inconceivable that student-athletes go to bed hungry — think about their schedules, especially on game nights, when the dining halls close, and how tricky it must be to find the time and the cash for grocery shopping — Napier was using inflammatory language to throw an obvious haymaker at the NCAA.

We know this because he also took a shot at the NCAA merchandising: “When you see your jersey getting sold — it may not have your last name on it — but when you see your jersey getting sold and things like that, you feel like you want something in return.” And, on the biggest of all stages, after winning the national championship, standing near NCAA President Mark Emmert, Napier screamed “this is what happens when you ban us.” An obvious shot at the NCAA for their punishment of UConn during the 2013 season.

Shabazz Napier is a very smart man. That much is obvious when you speak to him. Much like on the court, when interviewing him, he sees a move or two ahead. He’s quick to answer a question in a detailed and articulate manner that preemptively answers your follow-up as well. When Napier decided to throw gas on the NCAA, he undoubtedly knew the firestorm that would follow.

CNN, Fox, NBC, the Washington Post, and countless other media outlets have all run Napier’s quotes. The timing coincides with the Northwestern football team’s victory in front of the National Labor Relations Board in late March that paves the way for them to organize a union and collectively bargain with their university for compensation and benefits. Said Napier, “I think, you know, Northwestern has an idea, and we’ll see where it goes.”

While the NLRB decision will have a significant long-term impact on college sports, Napier’s remarks have sparked immediate action. In Connecticut, State Representative Pat Dillon latched onto Napier’s comments and the Northwestern ruling to propose changes to state law that would give UConn student-athletes the option of unionizing in the future. Other lawmakers have joined in. Elsewhere, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has entered the fray, suggesting the league could offer financial assistance to the NCAA to subsidize players staying in school longer. “I think if Shabazz Napier is saying he is going hungry, my God, it seems hard to believe, but there should be ample food for the players,” he said.

Napier’s comments were a veritable kick to the hornets’ nest, and it seems to be working. Earlier this week, I penned an article declaring Napier the most important player in UConn history, the gist being that he guided his university’s basketball program through a very tenuous time, ensuring that it remain the proud institution that its history deserves. Perhaps he’s trying to do the same thing for the sport of college basketball as he exits.