NBA ready to use return as forum

The NBA alerted America to the extreme seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic when the league suddenly and shockingly suspended its season on March 11.

More than four months later, when the NBA resumes play in Orlando on July 31, you better believe the most colorblind sports league in the world is going to alert Americans about the seriousness of another pandemic; a social pandemic — a 400-year-old American disease known as racial injustice.

The worldwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death have started to die down, but the NBA as a league and the Orlando Magic as a franchise are vowing not to let the national discussion die out. In fact, they plan to use the resumption of

COMMENTARY play at ESPN Wide World of Sports as a massive forum to keep the issue in the national consciousness.

“This is about the entire NBA and our opportunity as a league to truly make substantive change and have an impact on racism and social injustice in our country,” says Magic CEO Alex Martins, who was on the league’s re-start committee. “I think what you’re going to see when the NBA comes to Orlando for the restart of the season is that we’re going to use this as a platform to provide leadership in initiating significant change.”

It’s already started not only league-wide but in local communities. In Orlando, Martins, the most politically connected sports executive in the city, already has had conversations with both local mayors — Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County mayor Jerry Demings — about solutions to the many longstanding social