AAU Team Wears ‘I AM TRAYVON’ Shirts at National Tournament

Looking to honor Trayvon Martin and make a statement of their own, a Georgia-based AAU team is wearing ‘I AM TRAYVON’ t-shirts this week at the Fab 48 tournament in Las Vegas—one of the most highly touted events in the AAU calendar and attended by hundreds of Division-I college coaches scouting for talent—before and after games. More from CBS Sports: “They strolled into the auxiliary gym at Rancho High School with backpacks on and the message clear on their shirts: I AM TRAYVON. Every player on Game Elite’s 17U squad was donning the T-shirts during warm-ups and didn’t remove them until it was time to tip. The AAU program based out of Atlanta first displayed the shirts Wednesday night, and per program co-director Ryan Falker, they’ll wear the shirts before and after games for the duration of their stay for tournament play in Las Vegas this week. “We all wanted to wear the shirts because, even though the right thing didn’t turn out in court we wanted everyone to know we haven’t forgotten about this,” Avery Patterson said.The team became emotionally connected to the Trayvon Martin story/George Zimmerman trial as it progressed into July. And while at an AAU tournament in Georgia two weeks ago, every player sat in one hotel room to hear the verdict late on a Saturday night. When George Zimmerman was found not guilty, the reaction from the team was emotional and intense, according to the players I spoke with.”