Sports halt to ponder the next actions
An unprecedented NBA walkout over racial injustice postponed a second day of the playoffs Thursday and other sports followed.
Athletes are still angry and emotional after the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police in Kenosha.
The tennis tours had already decided they would pause play Thursday at the Western & Southern Open in New York; a number of NFL teams canceled practices; and the NHL postponed two nights of playoff games.
A second night of WNBA games were postponed and other teams and sports pondered whether they would play on.
“This is not a strike. This is not a boycott. This is a affirmatively day of reflection, a day of informed action and mobilization,” WNBA players' union president Nneka Ogwumike said on ESPN.
Seven Major League Baseball games also were postponed.
The sudden stoppages were reminiscent of March, when the NBA suspended its season after Utah center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. Other sports quickly followed until the worldwide sporting landscape had almost completely come to a halt.
NBA players agreed to resume their season in July at Disney, making clear they intended to chase social justice reform just as passionately as a championship. But the video of Blake's shooting on Sunday left them so disgusted and dispirited that they wondered whether they should continue playing.
The players voiced their frustrations in a meeting Wednesday night, then continued talks Thursday morning. As they prepared to do that, NBA referees led a march around campus to show their support in the fight against racism.
Before coming to Disney, many NBA players wrestled for weeks about whether it was even right to play, fearing that a return to games would take attention off the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.
They ultimately decided that playing would give them the largest platform – while also providing a bigger target for critics.
The NBA's relationship with the White House eroded when Donald Trump was elected after President Barack Obama was close with some players and officials. Trump was critical of the league again Thursday.
“They've become like a political organization, and that's not a good thing,” Trump told reporters, noting that the league's ratings are down from previous seasons. “I don't think that's a good thing for sports or for the country.”
Earlier Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff Marc Short said in a CNN interview that the NBA protests are “absurd and silly” when compared to their response to ongoing to human rights violations in China.