Social media reaction to Sterling Brown footage includes #StandWithSterling hashtag, parallels to NFL

With the release of the body cam footage showing a confrontation between Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown and Milwaukee police in January, reaction on social media was naturally instant.  

The hashtag #StandWithSterling began circulating on Twitter, with Milwaukee Bucks player DJ Wilson among the first to use it, and fellow Bucks player Brandon Jennings posted the hashtag as an image.

Jennings also tweeted, "I think what we just saw happen to Sterling as NBA Family we should all support him."

The Bucks head of strength and conditioning, Suki Hobson, also chimed in.

Several Bucks teammates took to Instagram to post #StandWithSterling visuals, including Malcolm Brogdon, Tony Snell, Wilson and Jennings.

It wasn't lost on many that the release of the video came on the same day as another pro-sports story intersecting with social injustice. The NFL announced teams would be fined for players who knelt during the National Anthem, with further discussion of potentially assessing on-field penalties, as well.

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Many NFL players who have knelt during the national anthem have expressed a desire to call attention to issues of social inequality.

One NFL player from Milwaukee, Shelby Harris, chimed in, as well.

The Bucks delivered a pointed response that did not shy away from pointing fingers.

The NBA is no stranger to standing up for social justice, particularly by way of its transcendent star, LeBron James.

More famously in 2012, James tweeted a photo of him and Miami Heat teamamtes with heads bowed and wearing hooded sweatshirts in support of Trayvon Martin, a black teen killed by neighborhood watch patroller George Zimmerman in Florida.

Before a 2014 game at Madison Square Garden, James and other members of the Cleveland Cavaliers wore T-shirts with the message "I Can't Breathe," a nod to New Yorker Eric Garner, who died after a New York Police Department officer allegedly applied a chokehold.

For what it's worth, James has not tweeted since April 14, just before the start of the ongoing NBA playoffs.

Just in March this season, members of the Sacramento Kings wore black T-shirts with the message "Accountability. We are one." following the death of unarmed Sacramento teen Stephon Clark, who was shot by police.