Nigel Hayes delivers heartfelt message on The Players’ Tribune

Known for his willingness to speak up against social injustices, Nigel Hayes used his voice one last time before entering the NBA Draft process.

In a powerful and meaningful message, former Wisconsin Badgers basketball player Nigel Hayes delivered a personal perspective of what it was like to be a student-athlete, specifically at the University of Wisconsin.

In a piece entitled “Don’t Just Shut Up and Play,” Hayes referenced experiences and situations he experienced while being a student athlete at Wisconsin and many of the hardships he faced. Backing up, Hayes has been very vocal throughout his career– but not in an obnoxious way.

If you remember last football season when College Gameday came to Bascom Hill in Madison for the Ohio State game, Hayes was seen holding a sign behind the stage, with a message somewhere along the lines of “Broke college kid” and then a reference to the money-exchanging app Venmo.

After this happening, Hayes was criticized and received glorious amounts of scrutiny, with angry fans of the game calling him out for getting free tuition, along with many unnecessary personal shots. No matter how you feel on amateurism and the topic of student-athletes getting paid, insulting a person’s humanity is beyond too far.

Before this instance, Hayes was very vocal on Twitter, often sticking up for social injustices he saw in every day life. Again, he was attacked, but that did not stop him and from there his voice began to get louder. Spots on ESPN and the Dan Patrick Show were no longer about the basketball team, but the experiences Hayes had been encountering.

It is no secret Hayes enjoyed his time playing basketball for the Badgers, as he stated in his recent article. The post in its entirety can be found here.

"Four years ago, before I got to college, a lot of my friends and family back in Toledo asked me why I had decided to go to Wisconsin, which at the time hadn’t been to a Final Four since 2000. After all, I’m an Ohio kid — why not go somewhere closer to home?And I remember exactly what I said to them: “I’ll let you know when I’m done there."

Hayes then goes on to talk about his first moments in Madison on and off the court and he turned a shy kid from Toledo to the big man on campus everyone looks up to, or at least knows of.

Now, I do not want to spoil the main points of the article, because it truly is something you need to read in its entirety.

The main theme of the passage was to highlight the use of Twitter and how he used it not only as a voice against racial, political, or social injustices, but also a place where he encountered demeaning and hateful language, thus proving the initial points he was trying to make.

Hayes notes to The Players’ Tribune:

"The first category, I’ll just call trolls … commenters trying to demean, not engage in dialogue, while hiding behind egg avatars. Need I say more?The second type of response, and always appreciated, went something like this: Thanks for using your platform to speak your mind.And the third response went something like this: Just shut up and play basketball! People also said things that were much worse, of course, but given that children may read this, I’ll spare you the graphic details."

As a fan, the third response is something I saw the most and is something we often see a lot of. If you are an avid user of Twitter, check out some of the analysts and players in the sports industry and see what happens when they tweet something other than sports. It’s not pretty.

Hayes wants you and everyone to know that just because he is an athlete, does not make his voice any less important. He is not there to serve the fans or anyone else for that matter.

I encourage all of you reading this post today to check out Nigel’s post on The Players’ Tribune.

Once again, you can read it in its entirety here.