“Stick to sports.”
Whenever pro athletes step out of bounds and discuss anything other than the game we love to watch them play, this is the phrase they’re often met with.
The private citizen who uses social media to criticize, even attack, whomever they choose, and more importantly, voice their opinions about whatever they please, that’s cool, even if it’s ego disguised as self-empowerment.
So why can’t the athletes?
When chiming in on a number of world issues, here’s what typically happens, as the responses to this tweet shows...
So if Pelinka has to denounce his clients due to a potential conflict of interest does this mean we'll finally see Trumps business holdings?
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) February 22, 2017
Spencer Dinwiddie is happy to engage anyone on anything, from his play to his political beliefs. Understand, this dude is different.
“It’s not so much the strict commentary that you get mad at, because if you miss a shot, you miss a shot, it’s a fact,” the third year player explains in this NetsDaily exclusive interview. “But when somebody says ‘I bet you don’t practice,’ they’re talking as if they know…when we’re in here every day. Nobody goes to your jobs and says ‘I guarantee you’re not putting the effort in.’ For me, it’s never out of a place of malice, I don’t really get mad at it because I understand that they don’t understand, so I just kind of ask questions back usually.”
“I enjoy the back and forth,” Dinwiddie added, flashing a grin. “Sometimes these people have great insight, positive or negative – but sometimes it’s crazy stuff, and I usually like responding to the crazy stuff because they make no sense. This is the same reason I have some political tweets too and people will comment back ‘MAGA’ or ‘stick to basketball,’ and say ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Dinwiddie continued, followed by a laugh. “It’s like because I play basketball, I don’t know that Donald Trump hid his tax returns? So I can’t have any amount of common sense because I’m an entertainer? What does this mean, what are y’all saying?”
Dinwiddie is one who lets it fly on social media, specifically Twitter, presenting a refreshing level of authenticity in conjunction with a conscience, rational frame of mind. He strongly feels that as an athlete, someone with the platform and a bevy of followers, you should use your voice to help better things around you, or as he says, to progress the near eight billion people on Earth.
And he has the intellectual tools to do it. He scored 1400 out of 1600 on his SAT’s (probably second on the team). Harvard was his back-up school ... despite how well they were doing at the time.
“Regardless of what anybody wants to say in the world, we’re all human beings, and we should have a collective goal of advancing the human race,” Dinwiddie told Netsdaily. “The closer we get to realizing we’re all humans, the better off we’ll all be. Instead, we’re split amongst different groups, religions, we let race divide us and all these other things. It really, in the long run, makes very little sense.”
For the 24-year old University of Colorado alum, part of bettering the human race is saying what you believe, and having the conviction to back it up. For instance, his take on Donald Trump cutting taxes for the rich. Dinwiddie is definitely not on board.
“I’ve heard it’ll benefit me…maybe me getting another $100,000 would be nice, but there’s going to be 24 million people that are going to lose health care, so what’s the tradeoff here?” Dinwiddie asked. “Is my additional money, whatever it is, worth that?
“I’m objectively weighing…okay…this amount of money in my pocket versus, 24 million people losing health care. As a human being you can’t sit here, look at that and say ‘oh yes, that’s right.’ Beyond the things he (Trump) said that were white, black, whether I agree with him or not…did I want a little bit more money to screw over millions of people? There’s no way you can look at your life and say ‘I’m this fortunate, and I need even more at the expense of people who make less than $40,000 a year.”
It’s not anything unreasonable, but sports fans have a problem with athletes dishing out these takes, as harmless as they are. Dinwiddie believes he has to do it, has to dish.
He isn’t making controversial statements that might lead to a pink slip. He’s taking a stand. “That would be stupid on my end.’’ He simply values the importance of using your platform for the greater good.
“I don’t have really any radical views of that type of vein,” he says. “For me it’s all about helping the eight billion. In terms of my thought process, it’s very pragmatic. It’s not glass half full or glass half empty, there’s just 50% the water in the glass. I believe in everyone having health care, if some fans don’t like me for things like that, then that’s their opinion. How they’re entitled to not like me, I’m entitled to want people to have healthcare.”
“We open up our lives and have to deal with the consequences, but we also get these extreme benefits financially and in terms of visibility,” Dinwiddie continued. “It’s then also our responsibility to stand up for what we believe in. From my perspective it’s about advancing the collective, the eight billion (people on the planet), and I’m not going to shy away from that. It’s your duty to at least do something that’s right and that helps people.”
Not the typical take of an athlete, or many public figures for that matter. So why don’t even more put themselves out there? Dinwiddie believes it’s worth the risk, but others do not.
“The basic human necessity is to protect oneself, fight or flight, survival, and for some, protecting the brand is that ‘fight or flight mechanism,’ which is fine,” Dinwiddie explained. “If they feel like that’s of paramount importance, then they have every right to do that as well.”
So at the cost of being authentic, Dinwiddie may lose support, but why? He explains.
“If I wanted to go through my career silent and make a few more dollars, I won’t have the visibility or the platform to then try to speak out and be an advocate because it’s not a threat to me anymore. I’m not going to be able to do as much good,” he said.
“People are only going to follow my Twitter for as long as I’m in the NBA or as long as I’m doing something. If my girl ends up on Basketball Wives then yeah, they’ll follow my Twitter. But if I’m not doing something that’s either globally or nationally impactful, or I’m visible every other day, then nobody’s going to listen to me. I’d just be another dude with a little bit of money, chilling out somewhere, and you don’t have that voice anymore. You have to use what you have, and sometimes it’s going to be at your expense.”
Dinwiddie expects to have a nice, long career in the league, but also hopes for a slew of options when he eventually exits, whenever that may be. He alludes to ‘many thoughts’ about post-NBA life, which entail going back to Colorado and finishing his Bachelor of Arts in human physiology (basically kinesiology), and then got a Doctorate in studying the body, human mechanics and things like that, becoming a researcher when all is said and done.
He also likes cooking, which is interestingly enough, his hobby. He’s pondered the prospect of going overseas, perfecting the culinary art at the best schools on the continent.
But no matter what, the L.A. native is grateful for his upbringing, which has awarded him the greatest gift of all, the ability to dream.
“I had two parents who loved me, and one of the best things they gave me was the ability to dream. A lot of people grow up in situations where they can’t dream, they go after what they see. If you grow up in the projects and you see illegal or athletic methods of getting money, those are your two options,” Dinwiddie added candidly.
“I was fortunate enough with my up-bringing, and granted, we weren’t rich or anything, but the way my parents brought me up was that if I said I wanted to be an astronaut they’d say ‘hey, let’s go do it!’ I had that support, I had the ability to dream.”
“What this has been able to do is afford me the ability to still be a dreamer without sacrificing my present or my future because I’m building the opportunity to not have to do anything in the future, which then lets me be anything in the future.”
Dinwiddie will play his game, do his best, but he’s not just a player. He’s human.