The sports world bore witness to a huge outpouring of support for Paris yesterday, and the NBA was no exception. Knicks forward and French national Kevin Seraphin showed solidarity for his home country by shaving an elaborate graphic of the word "Paris" spelled out with the Eiffel Tower for an "A" into his head.French native @kevin_seraphin showing support after the tragedy in Paris. pic.twitter.com/9Q00mdP0WA
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) November 15, 2015
The Knicks put on their own display of support, drenching the court in the colors of the French flag before the game kicked off."Is that real?" Seraphin said he asked himself about 90 minutes before the Knicks faced the Cleveland Cavaliers. "That's the kind of stuff that happens in the movies. We thought it was a movie. After a while, you start to realize …"
In other parts of the NBA, The Chicago Tribune reported that French national Nicholas Batum (Hornets) and former Paris resident Joakim Noah (Bulls) had a very somber exchange on the court, following the attacks,pic.twitter.com/UpFwyd9x9i
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) November 15, 2015
[h/t SB Nation]"The first thing I said when I saw (Noah) on the court was, 'Is your family OK?' And the first thing he said to me was, 'Is your family OK?' And we're fine. He's fine too," Batum said. "I'm fine, but I'm not because we lost people for nothing, because of stupid people. We've got to stay strong. We've got to show them, like I tried tonight, through my way that we're strong and we won't step down because you're doing bad stuff to people. We're going to cry for our people we lost tonight but we're going to stay strong, keep our heads up and keep moving forward and show that we're better than them."