Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV was among the volunteers helping clean up damage in downtown San Antonio on Sunday, one day after protests that included looting raged in the area due to the death of George Floyd.
Walker spent about two hours handing out bottled water and helping clean graffiti off buildings.
“You all have a reason to be nice. It’s common courtesy, being a human. Helping out the best you can,” Walker said in a video posted on Instagram.
Walker is seen during the video interacting with dozens of people while volunteering, keeping a positive approach as he mingled with citizens, some of whom recognized that he was an NBA player.
“You have to take the good with the bad,” Walker said. “Everything that happened last night — on the positive end, we had a lot of people protesting. On the negative end, a lot of things got destroyed.”
Protests have taken place in numerous cities around the United States due to the death of Floyd, a black man who died last Monday in Minneapolis after white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for several minutes.
Chauvin and three other Minneapolis police officers ignored Floyd’s cries for help and he eventually went motionless. The incident was caught on video, leading to outrage across the country.
Walker, 21, was averaging 5.6 points and 2.2 rebounds in 53 games (four starts) this season before the coronavirus interrupted the NBA season on March 11. He was a first-round choice (18th overall) by the Spurs in the 2018 NBA Draft.
–Field Level Media
