7. Khris Middleton
Veteran player Khris Middleton, 34, was a longtime Milwaukee Buck who lived out his faith by giving back to the community. While in that city, he supported team chaplain Kenneth Lock II during the launch of Evolve Church and Community.
Middleton, now with the Washington Wizards, received standing ovations when he returned to Milwaukee for this week’s season opener. “To get that type of love and appreciation from the fans, I think that’s cool,” he said.
Middleton, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, wrote about the impact of the 2015 mass shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church. It “felt like an attack on my home,” he wrote in The Players’ Tribune.
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Middleton’s grandmother “knew four of the nine people who were killed that night, including Reverend Pinckney,” he wrote. “I couldn’t get it out of my head that one of the beautiful people who was killed, Cynthia Hurd, had dropped off her nephews at my basketball camp a month ago.”
Middleton noted that President Obama’s eulogy for Pinckney emphasized the power of God’s grace. The athlete wrote, “It is my prayer that we find that grace in each and every one of us and continue the important work from our predecessors in eliminating hate and racism.”
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