Jordan helps broker NBA deal
A week unlike any other in a season unlike any other took a dramatic turn Thursday, with the NBA and NHL postponing playoff games, the WNBA and some Major League Baseball teams postponing regular-season games and several NFL teams, including the Bears, canceling practices over social-justice issues.
NBA players, spurred on by former Bulls star Michael Jordan, voted Thursday in favor of resuming the playoffs, ESPN reported.
Jordan, the owner of the Hornets — and the only Black majority owner in the league — reached out to National Basketball Players Association president Chris Paul, league sources told ESPN, in advance of the owners’ meeting to get a better understanding of what the players hoped to achieve going forward and to offer assistance as they make their case to the NBA board of governors. Jordan also spoke with Rockets star Russell Westbrook about issues of social justice that initially left some stars advocating for the cancellation of the rest of the season, ESPN reported.
Athletes across several leagues are still angry and emotional after the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
‘‘We obviously agree that whether we play or not, we still have to do our best to make change and we still have to do our part in the community,’’ Magic guard Michael CarterWilliams said in a video interview with a team public-relations official.
Aside from the Bears, eight other NFL teams — the Cardinals, Broncos, Packers, Colts, Chargers, Jets, Titans and Washington — chose not to practice.
‘‘We’ve been protecting the shield,’’ Jets running back Le’Veon Bell wrote of the NFL in a Twitter post. ‘‘It’s time for the shield to protect us.’’
President Donald Trump blasted the NBA, saying it has become like ‘‘a political organization.’’
White House aides earlier had suggested the protests weren’t constructive and were hypocritical, considering the NBA’s relative silence about human-rights violations in China, where U.S. pro basketball has a large audience. Trump said in a radio interview this month that NBA players were ‘‘very nasty’’ and ‘‘very dumb’’ for kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice.
“They’ve become like a political organization, and that’s not a good thing,” Trump told reporters Thursday, noting the NBA’s ratings are down from previous seasons. ‘‘I don’t think that’s a good thing for sports or for the country.’’