Professional athletes who play for the Buffalo Bills, Sabres and Bandits gathered Wednesday outside the Tops grocery store on Jefferson Avenue to offer their support to a grieving community, days after a white supremacist murdered 10 Black people and injured three others in the largest mass shooting in the United States this year.
The players volunteered their time to serve food and interact with local residents.
Bandits star forward Dhane Smith, the first and only Black MVP in the history of the National Lacrosse League, is among those taking his assistance a step further.
“It’s a tough time, obviously, for the city and they give back to us all the time,” Smith told The Buffalo News after laying flowers at a growing, nearby memorial. “They’ve been supporting us all year and every year, so anytime I can give back to this community, I will.”
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Smith, 30, plans to donate $50 for every goal the Bandits score in their road playoff game against the Toronto Rock on Saturday, and is auctioning his game-used gloves and stick, with all proceeds benefiting the families shattered by the racist attack. The most recent bids for the equipment are $400 and $265, respectively, with more than nine days remaining in the auction, which ends May 28.
Professional lacrosse players earn a pittance compared to NFL and NHL players and often work a second job to make ends meet.
Bandits defenseman Franky Brown, who was raised in Salamanca and serves as an assistant coach at Canisius College, has vowed to match Smith’s donations for goals scored, as has Kyle Harrison, a former U.S. national team player and the director of player relations and diversity inclusion for the Premier Lacrosse League, which plays its games outdoors. Smith also plays in the PLL and helped Chaos LC win the league title in 2021.
The Bandits defeated the Rock, 18-17, in the first game of the NLL’s best-of-three Eastern Conference final on Sunday before a crowd of 10,258 fans in KeyBank Center. The team announced it would donate the proceeds of its 50/50 raffle, which raised a record $32,772, to the families of the shooting victims.
“In my heart, it felt like they were winning that game for the community, as little as that might mean under the circumstances,” Bandits coach John Tavares told reporters after the game.
Game 2 is 7 p.m. Saturday at Toronto. Game 3, if necessary, is May 28 at Buffalo.
Buffalo Bandits players Frank Brown and Dhane Smith lay flowers at a memorial outside the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue.
Smith, who was raised in Kitchener, Ont., has played for Buffalo since 2013.
Smith set NLL records for points (137) and goals (72) in a season in 2016, when he was named league MVP. But he didn’t learn he was the first Black player to win the award and the importance of representation until years later – after the death of George Floyd and during worldwide Black Lives Matter rallies – when he began to wrestle with the racism he experienced as a child and while playing a predominantly white sport.
“It’s really something that’s kind of eye-opening now that you mention it,” Smith told The News in 2020. “I didn’t really think about it; I was just excited to win MVP. It definitely means a lot if that’s the case.”
“It’s really something that’s kind of eye-opening now that you mention it,” Smith said “I didn’t really think about it; I was just excited to win MVP. It definitely means a lot if that’s the case.”
Smith’s honor can serve as a beacon to recruit diverse players to the sport and help tell the broad story of Black history and culture, Akilah Carter-Francique told The News in 2020. Carter-Francique is an associate professor of African American studies at San Jose State University and the first Black female executive director of the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change.
“It’s important for Black boys and Black girls to see themselves represented in places that do not have representation, or have historically low representation, because certain spaces are often viewed as ‘acceptable’ sports for Black people,” Carter-Francique said, citing basketball, football and track.
“So when we think of golf, when we think of swimming, when we think of NASCAR, you don’t see (many Black athletes), so having a Tiger Woods is important. Having a Simone Manuel or Cullen Jones is important to get young Black kids involved. Having a Bubba Wallace is important to have that visual representation and to have young people sort of see themselves in these other spaces.”
Smith said he was the only Black player on his lacrosse and hockey teams as a kid and though his white teammates never made him feel any different, opponents and spectators were sure to remind him.
He said he tried to ignore the slurs and racial epithets, the trash talk that crossed the line, the taunts about monkeys and bananas that he and his younger brother endured on a regular basis.
Smith spoke to The News not only about the flagrant hatred he’s endured, but the stereotypes and ignorant comments he still hears to this day, like how he must be good at basketball or that he’s the “whitest Black guy.”
“I felt like I had to share my story,” Smith said. “I know there’s probably tons of Black kids out there that deal with the same kind of issues that I did, and for them to see that I went through the same things and I’m playing at the highest level, I’m hoping that helps them.”
Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Toronto. Game 3, if necessary, is slated for May 28 at KeyBank Center.
Smith helped lead the Bandits (14-4) to the best record in the NLL this season.
He scored 41 goals and set the NLL record for assists (94), amassing a total of 135 points, just three short of breaking the league mark he set in 2016.
He’s still chasing his first league championship.
Buffalo last won the title in 2008 and lost in the final in 2016 and 2019.
This is the league’s first postseason since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I said a speech after the last game and all the guys felt bad for me,” Smith said, alluding to the racist mass shooting, “but what I feel bad is for the next generation and for the kids that I’m going to have eventually. I don’t want them growing up the way I grew up.”
News reporter Katherine Fitzgerald contributed to this report.
