Here’s why the NBA is airing anti-gun violence PSAs

On Wednesday, the NBA announced a unique partnership with anti-gun violence advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety to air a series of PSAs beginning on Christmas. The 30-second spot above features interviews with Stephen Curry, Joakim Noah, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, as well as interviews with family members and survivors of those affected by gun violence.

That video is just the beginning of the campaign. The league is committed to continuing it throughout the season, according to Jason Rzepka, the director of cultural engagement at Everytown. The organization has three other spots ready to air.and over 18 hours of interview footage with the players and survivors.

“The NBA has made it clear that they view this as a campaign, not just as a single PSA,” Rzepka told SB Nation.

We spoke to Rzepka about Spike Lee’s involvement in making the partnership happen, how they decided which players would be involved and what sort of impact they hope the spots will have to the larger gun control conversation. This is an edited transcript of our conversation.

From your perspective, how did this all come about? Who initiated talks?

I would really give all credit to Spike for being the catalyst of this. We’re really fortunate that we’ve been able to build a great relationship and a great partnership with Spike with Everytown. We’ve done a number of things now, going back to the summer where we partnered with him on the BK loves MJ block party that he does. We ended up signing up more people to join our organization in that one day than we ever have before in a single day.

Following that, we welcomed him into the Creative Council, which is this kind of group in the creative community that’s joining with Everytown to help accelerate gun violence prevention and help build the gun violence prevention movement. Drawing on that, we worked with him on our social action campaign, connected to Chi-Raq, we also organized a rally that he did after the New York premiere of the film.

Through all of that, I think we’ve been coming closer together. Spike’s been really passionate about the issue and really committed about it. He pitched the idea directly to [ESPN president John] Skipper and to [NBA commissioner Adam] Silver. He said, ‘Look, I think you guys really should take this on and consider running PSAs on gun violence.’ They agreed to do so.

Spike was really the beginning, middle and end of this. We had our first meeting at the NBA office and he brought Everytown in. He said, ‘I really want them to be a part of this and be a point person.’ They want to learn more about this issue and take action to reduce gun violence.

Was there any pushback from anyone involved on doing this?

I can’t speak to the conversation that Spike had with the leadership of the NBA and Adam Silver, but I know that from the moment we walked in the door for the first meeting, they were really charged up and really excited to take this on.

I think there was a sense that there are so many players in the NBA have come from communities that are racked by gun violence. There are people that work at the NBA that either know people that were lost to gun violence or have seen the headlines we all see every week and are fed up with it. They understood they had an opportunity to make a significant impact and do something about it. We were blown away by the way they took this on so intensely. They’ve embraced doing more to address this issue.

How were these filmed? Did the players interact at all with the other survivors?

The days are typically built more around the survivors first and then the NBA players at the end. Also, [the players] are busy with practice and games, so we didn’t have a chance to do a lot of cross-mingling.

But I know that every one of the survivors were so deeply moved by the gesture and the fact that these players would be willing to speak out on this, and also, by doing what they’re doing, shine a spotlight on the everyday Americans who are impacted by gun violence. If you watch the spot, you see that those survivors are shoulder-to-shoulder with the players on the same stage. I think it’s going to bring a lot of visibility to these stories that often go untold.

All the players were really humbled to be a part of it. They were saying, ‘This is the least that I can do, and if I can use my voice to bring more attention to this, to spotlight the incredible loss these people experienced and call on others to get involved, others won’t have to experience that same pain.’ There’s a lot of mutual respect between [the players and the survivors].

How was it decided that these four players would be the ones to do the PSAs? Did they volunteer? Did you or the league request them specifically?

The whole campaign was filmed in a week and a half, so it was in many ways dictated by the schedule. Someone like Joakim [Noah], who has been very active in the public with his support for this issue, was a natural candidate. It was a question of making a short list of who the people we could conceivably get in this short time frame among those who would really like to do it.

I would say we were really surprised to see how quickly we got ‘Yes’ responses and were able to afford booking time for them. Then also, being able, on the dates we were filming with them, to bring in many survivors as well. We filmed in Chicago and had 12 survivors filmed there in addition to Joakim. We filmed in Boston on a date where the Warriors were getting ready to play the Celtics. Unfortunately, the reality is that there are far too many survivors of gun violence, so it’s relatively easy to bring in people to share their stories.

Spike did most of the outreach, because he has a relationship with these guys. We were really thrilled to get the response we got.

Your organization has some policy changes you’re advocating for in general, but what kind of impact do you hope this specific campaign has on the larger conversation?

I think, one, it’s going to expose millions of people to this issue in a different way than they typically consume it. A lot of Americans are exposed to gun violence in the wake of a mass shooting when there’s terrible headlines on the news, and I don’t know if they always necessarily get to hear the real stories of how this issue plays out every day. So one goal is for them to be exposed to the stories and to be educated on the issue. We’ve developed a site with all the videos that serves as an entry point into Everytown and all that we do, and that will help people better understand how all of this plays out.

Also, it’s just having these players on board. We see more and more people speaking out on behalf of change, on behalf of a need to do more to reduce this crisis that takes 88 Americans every day. If this can help increase with which the country views the need to address this issue, that can make a tremendous difference in the overall arc of reducing gun violence in America.

Will you now try to work more with other leagues?

We would love to work with other leagues. We’ve done it more at the franchise level at this point. We did a big party in Chicago in June, and I was in conversations with the Chicago Bears about the potential to send some players out to this party we were doing. We’ve kind of pitched more at the player and franchise level so far, but we would love to work with other sports leagues on a similar effort.

This is an issue that is often divisive, and it’s unique to see a professional sports league take this kind of stand. What do you think that says about the NBA that they’re willing to take this on before any other leagues?

We certainly salute the NBA leadership, but the other thing I’d say is that this doesn’t need to be a divisive issue. Part of the reason it’s been divisive is the way it’s been presented to the American public, where you either have to pick a side to be pro-gun or anti-gun. This is not about pro-gun or anti-gun. This is about gun violence. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a single person in this country that’s pro-gun violence. By looking at this for what it is, which is a senseless loss of life and the idea that there are common-sense solutions that we can apply to reduce that senseless loss of life, I think it quickly looks much less controversial and becomes much less divisive. So I think it’s really a question to perspective.