Season is saved, but social reform still at the forefront for players
The last time an NBA clock ticked toward zero, one of the favorites for the league’s title refused to leave the locker room, a brazen protest in the wake of another highly publicized police shooting, this one 40 miles from the team’s home.
Since the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to play, to instead use their time to seek reform from state leaders in the aftermath of the Jacob Blake shooting, a different clock began to tick.
Would the season continue? Would players agree to return to the court while streets in American cities once again erupted in violence and cries for change? Would ownership agree to a new set of demands? Would the NBA’S bubble burst?
This time, the players have emerged, willing to play, the season saved while their fight against racial injustice returns closer to the foreground.
Details for the resumption of play are still fluid. The three games scheduled for Thursday, including the Clippers’ potential series clincher against Dallas, won’t be played.
The NBA announced the playoffs would resume either Friday or Saturday – the latter being more likely. Players and league owners, including Charlotte’s Michael Jordan, will speak Thursday to determine what’s next.
It was a dramatic shift from the peril the season appeared to be in one day earlier.
Wednesday night, as that imaginary clock ticked, it appeared the season was in serious jeopardy. According to people with knowledge of the situation, players from the Clippers and the Lakers said they were in favor of scrapping the season and going home. At one point, Lebron James got up and walked out.
But as the night wore on, players from teams around the league, including the Lakers, continued to discuss their options while some of the emotion from earlier in the day dissipated.
Thursday morning, the league’s players and owners held separate meetings to discuss the next courses of action. Earlier in the day, the Lakers held their own meeting that stretched past the start of the leaguewide gathering.
The next steps are still undetermined – another meeting Thursday afternoon could firm some things up. Players have demanded support for Black businesses and communities before, while pressing ownership to hire more minority candidates for key positions within organizations – on the bench, in the front office and beyond.
Their calls to action from Orlando – the peaceful protests during the national anthem, the messaging on courts and on the backs of jerseys and their interviews filled with calls for justice – began to fade as the exhibition and seeding games gave way to the playoffs.
New calls for justice were sparked by the Blake shooting and video being released from last year’s
NBA Finals showing an Alameda County Sheriff ’s deputy shove Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri as he tried to enter the court to celebrate with his team. The officer said Ujiri initiated the contact.
These are deeply personal issues throughout the
NBA. Stars in the league, like Washington’s Bradley Beal, have shared stories of harassment from law enforcement. Others, like Clippers coach Doc Rivers, have been the victims of racially motivated crimes like the arson of his house in San Antonio. And Bucks guard Sterling Brown was a victim of police brutality and remains in litigation after turning down a $400,000 settlement offer.