Meet the Leeds basketball star taking a stand against racial injustice

When Danny Evans was a 10-year-old boy living in North Leeds, he wrote a note saying ‘I want to be a professional basketball player when I grow up’ and stuck it on his bedroom wall. Thirteen years and a lot of hard work later, he has achieved his dream and is moving from Yorkshire to Spain next week after signing to play for Bàsquet L’Hospitalet, a team based on the outskirts of Barcelona.

“It would fuel my fire a little bit and was a source of inspiration for me,” Evans, who went on to spend four years in America in the ultra-competitive world of college basketball after winning a university scholarship to the States at 18, explains of his boyhood message to himself.

“I believe I am the first person from Leeds to get a scholarship to play basketball in America and then go to Europe to play professionally. When I was growing up there wasn’t a role model that had done what I had set out to do.”

Evans is at the very beginning of his professional career in Spain’s third division but like many of his generation of athletes is determined to use his sporting platform to have a political say.

After helping arrange Black Lives Matters demonstrations in Leeds following the death of George Floyd in the US, Evans will continue to support the organisation from afar.

He says that after becoming desensitised to his experiences of racism in the UK growing up - from shopkeepers following him around stores thinking he might steal something to people making assumptions about his “type of music” in nightclubs - his time in America forced him to re-evaluate.

“My experience is quite unique. Before I went out to America I was kind of numb to some of the things I had experienced here in terms of the way the system is designed to hold back or not provide as many opportunities for black people.

“When I went to America because they are much further along in terms of having those difficult conversations, I had no choice but to be educated about it. I’m mixed race - my mum is white and my dad is black. I had to educate myself on the subject and because of my experiences with racism it made me hyper-aware of the things I have experienced. I could recognise it more quickly.

“I had been numb to it. But it comes to a point where you can’t just ignore it and now is the time to challenge it.”

Evans had returned to the UK after the US college basketball season was curtailed by Covid-19 when the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May at the hands of a police officer led to worldwide outrage and mass protests.

As with so many people, seeing the shocking footage of Floyd pleading for his life while a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 note touched a deep nerve for Evans.

“It was such a visceral event and you couldn’t help being moved by it whatever your colour. It was a man being murdered in front of your eyes. For me personally, it was over such a trivial thing and it felt like it could have been a friend, a family member or me in his shoes. That is what hit home.”

Evans had already had some experience of community engagement after setting up the ‘FindYours’ project with two friends in Leeds designed to empower young people in the city to explore their passions - from music to sport to setting up their own business.

They spoke to more than 1,500 children in 2019 but their plans for 2020 were cancelled because of Covid-19. However, that experience gave him the confidence to feel he could act following the death of Floyd.

“When the death of George Floyd happened, I was speaking with my friend from the FindYours project and we were really wanting to do something. I didn’t know what we wanted to do.

“We contacted Marvina Newton from the local Black Lives Matter group and got her number through their Facebook page.”

After a conversation with her, Evans decided to get involved with the group and within two weeks had helped to organise a successful online demonstration.

He then played a key role in organising a socially-distanced protest at Hyde Park in Leeds which was attended by around 6,000 people.

“It was a small team of four of us that pulled that together. Having gone in a short space of time from not knowing Marvina or anyone else to making it happen and doing the event was just inspiring - it made me proud to be from Leeds because of the incredible response on the day.”

The BLM protests in Yorkshire and across the country were the subject of considerable criticism on the grounds that the gatherings could further spread coronavirus.

Evans says everything possible was done to reduce the potential risk.

“That was always something at the forefront of our minds. We were very aware that BAME people are four times more likely to die from Covid. We didn’t want to do something that would put the people we were trying to fight for at risk.

“Everyone wore masks on the day and we had donations of 3,000 masks that were handed out by over 100 volunteers. We made the day very, very safe.”

Evans says another common criticism of the BLM movement in the UK - the claim that racism problems in this country are either lesser or non-existent compared to what is seen in the US - was undermined by the footage of far-right activists giving Nazi salutes in London in June when over 100 people were arrested during their demonstrations in the capital. After attacks on police officers that day by those who claimed to be in the capital to defend statues, Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned what he described as “racist thuggery”.

Evans says: “It is quite telling when you saw the images of Neo-Nazis in London. It was like, to those people who said there was no racism, well there you go.”

After Premier League football resumed following lockdown, players took the knee before kick-off in every match to support the Black Lives Matter message - a move that was supported by the football authorities.

Evans says that gesture shows how far things have come in a few short years from the time when American Football quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in protest at police brutality - a demonstration that effectively ended his career as other NFL clubs refused to sign him when he became a free agent.

In recent days, a series of major US sporting events have been called off as athletes protested against racial injustice following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin last week.

Three NBA play-off games, three Major League Baseball matches, three WNBA fixtures and five Major League Soccer games were postponed after player-led actions in response to the shooting of African-American Blake and the civil unrest that has followed.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka also withdrew from her semi-final at the Western & Southern Open in New York, scheduled for Thursday, saying “before I am an athlete, I am a black woman”.

Speaking before those recent developments, Evans says: “I was really happy to see footballers taking the knee - they are putting their platform to positive use. Just a few years ago, Colin Kaepernick was literally the only person, he was doing it alone and he lost his career because of it. It is very interesting to see how things have moved on but there is still a long way to go.”

Passion for basketball began at after-school club

Danny’s passion for basketball began when he was attending Alwoodley Primary School in Leeds.

“I went to a normal primary school and started playing basketball at after-school club when I was about eight and caught the bug from there,” he says.

“I had natural talent and worked at it really, really hard. When I got to about 12, I really focused on my basketball. I was selected for the Yorkshire team and when I was 14 for the England team and just worked my way up.

“Whereas some guys travel to different places for different opportunities, I stayed put in Leeds until I was 18, went to school and did my A-Levels here. I have always been really strongly tied to Leeds.”

After progressing through the England junior set up, Evans was offered a scholarship to play and study in America.

“A lot of people would ask me, are you nervous about going away from your family? But to be honest, I was pursuing my dreams and it felt like a huge opportunity.”

He initially went to the University of Maine.

“I was just this little kid from Leeds and the next thing I knew I’m playing in a 10,000-seater arena on national television. It was a bit surreal.”

He spent two years in Maine and a further two years at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

“I was there for two years and had two really good years where I played really well and improved a lot. We were really successful as a team.”

After winning their regional conference title, the team was into the final rounds of a national competition. But just as their season was gearing up for a triumphant climax, it was called off as a result of Covid.

“The season was cut short, the university had closed and I had to come home. It was very difficult as we had worked hard for the entire season and had just won 11 games straight.”

Evans completed a business degree as he was pursuing his basketball ambitions in the US.

“It is definitely not for the faint-hearted, especially being so far away from home. You don’t have the luxury of going home for the weekend.”

He is now looking forward to starting his professional career in Spain, with the season due to begin in October.

“I’m excited about starting, it has been a dream since I was ten. Basketball has really big support in Spain - people here don’t have a good understanding of it. In Spain, France, Germany and the bigger European countries, the sport is really big. The top league in Spain is recognised as the second best in the world behind the NBA. I’m going to be in the third league in Spain and my goal is to make it in Spain.

“I played for Great Britain Under 20s three years ago. We were really successful that year and the best step up is the senior GB team. That is definitely in my sights in the next two years.”

He says becoming a professional basketball after coming from a city where the sport is far from mainstream (Leeds Force - the city’s professional basketball team folded in 2018) has been far from an easy road.

“Making it here has been so difficult. I don’t want kids to think it was an easy ride - especially coming from Leeds where basketball isn’t that big. There was one junior club and it wasn’t easy to get there. I stuck with it and I was lucky to have people around me who were very supportive of that.”

Evans says the Government should do more to fund grassroots basketball in this country - which receives less backing than sports like rowing and badminton on the grounds there is less chance of Olympic success.

“We don’t get the funding from the Government that we should - things are based on Olympic medal likelihood. In terms of participation, we have hundreds of thousands more playing than rowing or badminton but we don’t get the funding we should. It is a shame really. It has obviously been huge in my life and with it being a team sport, it could change so many people’s lives around the country.”

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James Mitchinson