Jazz Mitchell Pushes Education In Roundtable With Kamala Harris

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Donovan Mitchell preached the importance of education in his roundtable with vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The Utah Jazz guard, along with Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris, and Senator Harris sat down to discuss issues facing the African-American community ahead of the November 3 general election.

The roundtable, titled “ReMaking America” ran for 13 minutes, and was made available on YouTube before officially debuting on PlayersTV Tuesday evening. The event was hosted by McCollum inside an airport hanger, though the conversation was mostly led by Harris focusing on her campaign’s platform.

Mitchell Pushes Education With Kamala Harris

Mitchell has transformed into one of the NBA’s most outspoken advocates for the African-American community in recent years. Though the Jazz guard hasn’t publicly endorsed any candidates, he has spoken out against gun violence, and violence by police officers towards the Black community, especially during the NBA’s restart inside the Orlando bubble.

The All-Star guard has also spoken openly about his unique upbringing as a star athlete, attending a private school, with mostly white classmates. During his conversation with the vice-presidential candidate, Mitchell credited his mother with his belief in the importance of education.

“The great thing about the league that we were making a huge push to go out and vote, focusing on education, finding ways to least inform, and give back to the community,” Mitchell said. “My mom being a teacher, she’s instilled that in me.”

Mitchell’s Two Different Americas

McCollum, a strong advocate for education reform, asked Mitchell about his upbringing, and how his mother helped shape his views on education.

“I went to private school and public schools, so I’ve seen the two different Americas in this world,” Mitchell said. “And it’s crazy. There are some friends that went to private school with that have no idea what’s happening 45 minutes away in the projects in certain areas — no idea how people live. And vice versa.”

. @spidadmitchell's donation to @GraniteSchools is inspired by his mom's career in education ❤️https://t.co/pueOdbFwKS

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 16, 2020

The “ReMaking America” series, hosted by McCollum aims to tackle social issues like education reform while facilitating discussions with fellow athletes, politicians, community leaders, and activists.

During the roundtable, Mitchell explained why education has been a key issue for him in his political advocacy.

“Having my mom and talking to her about it, I was just like, ‘How can we continue to find ways to push education?’ Because I’m 24, and there are people who are way older than me that don’t even know what Juneteenth is, or black Wall Street, and I’m informing them.”

Mitchell isn’t the only member of the organization taking part in the democratic process ahead of the November election. The franchise has supported multiple non-partisan voter registration campaigns ahead of the election.

The organization has worked to make voters aware of state deadlines and the vote-by-mail process. In August, the team announced it would make Vivint Arena a polling center for the November election, as well as multiple Megaplex theaters, owners by the Miller family.