Some NBA players question return to play amid push for social change.
Irving, Howard worry NBA games could distract from protests; some believe playing helps
Perhaps the most difficult, or at least most unusual, of all NBA seasons has gotten even more challenging. Inspiring or enacting change can have that effect.
More than ever, there is no blueprint, no precedent to guide NBA commissioner Adam Silver or the National Basketball Players Association membership and leadership.
While trying to find consensus on myriad health and safety protocols necessary to bring back basketball amid a pandemic — with COVID-19 cases rising in central Florida, the league’s choice for one central site of games — players have expressed strong, conflicting opinions about the wisdom of returning at all while addressing issues considerably more significant than how the Bucks might match up with the Lakers come October.
The Black Lives Matter movement and protests of racial injustice are driving some players to focus on the cause with a strong “bigger than basketball” sentiment. That also brings ambivalence about directing their attention to finalizing approval for the NBA’s return-to-play plan.
The league characteristically will seek to work with the union to find ways to bridge the determination of many to salvage the season with the goals to keep attention on the larger cause. More than three months since the season was stopped, there will be a great deal to discuss.
“We understand the players’ concerns and are working with the players association on finding the right balance to address them,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass told the New York Times on Sunday.
That will be challenging. In a Zoom meeting Friday and via
social media over the weekend, players expressed a wide variety of opinions about where resuming the season might fit or conflict with the movement.
That was especially clear when Rockets guard Austin Rivers and Lakers center Dwight Howard addressed the debate. Rivers noted that the resumption of the season would benefit the societal cause, with players able to contribute money from salaries that otherwise would go unpaid. Howard released a statement arguing that players should keep their focus and others’ attention on more critical issues.
Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving organized Friday’s call and encouraged sitting out the season, the resumption of which is planned for next month at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex outside Orlando,
Fla. Though the union’s player representatives approved the format of the return-to-play plan ratified by the NBA Board of Governors, talks had continued about formalizing many details — including health and safety protocols — that still need the players association’s approval.
There had been many questions about issues related to the bubble, including the limits on movement outside the Disney campus and the long wait to allow family members to join players. But the greatest challenge might be playing basketball while not drawing attention away from larger issues.
“I love Kyrie’s passion towards helping this movement,” Rivers posted on Instagram. “It’s admirable and inspiring. I’m with it … but not at the cost of the whole NBA and players’ careers. We can do both. We can play and we can help change the way black lives are lived. I think we have (to)! But canceling and boycotting (a) return doesn’t do that in my opinion. Guys want to play and provide and help change !!!! ”
Rivers cited the financial ramifications of a canceled season, noting there are players who need the paychecks that would be lost and that the income could be used to help the cause. The cost of not playing the season would be extreme and lead to extensive upheaval. Players would lose roughly $1.2 billion in salaries, and the NBA could enact the force majeure clause in the collective bargaining agreement to effectively
tear up the current labor agreement.
“Us coming back would put money in all of our (NBA players’) pockets,” Rivers wrote. “With this money you could help out even more people and continue to give more importantly your time and energy towards the BLM movement. Which I’m 100% on board with. Because change needs to happen and injustice has been going on too long.”
Rivers, along with Rockets teammates Russell Westbrook and Ben McLemore, had liked an Instagram post citing a report in the Athletic that Lakers star LeBron James believes restarting the season will not deter him from pushing for social change. But in a statement to CNN on Saturday, Howard said he does not support resuming the season.
“I agree with Kyrie,” Howard wrote. “Basketball, or entertainment period, isn’t needed at this moment, and will only be a distraction. Sure it might not distract us the players, but we have resources at hand majority of our community don’t have. And the smallest distraction for them can start a trickle-down effect that may never stop. Especially with the way the climate is now. I would love nothing more than to win my very first NBA Championship. But the unity of My People would be an even bigger Championship, that’s just (too) beautiful to pass up.”
Clippers guard Lou Williams argued that NBA games would distract from protests.
“If we had a game today and u leave a protest to watch it. That’s a distraction. Any questions?” Williams posted on Twitter.
His point might have been clear, but many remaining questions have no easy answers.