NBA players decide to resume
Games were postponed Thursday, but playoffs will continue.
The NBA playoffs are on track to resume.
After meeting Wednesday night and again Thursday morning, players reached the decision to continue playing.
The league indicated it was hoping to restart on Friday or Saturday, but as of late Thursday, no decisions had been made about the schedule. The three playoff games scheduled for Thursday (Nuggets vs. Jazz, Celtics vs. Raptors, Clippers vs. Mavericks) were postponed.
NBA executive vice president Mike Bass said in a statement that a meeting had been set for Thursday afternoon to determine the specifics for the resumption of the playoffs. The videoconference was to include a group of players and ownership representatives of the 13 teams in Orlando, representatives from the players’ union and the league, and NBA labor relations committee chairman Michael Jordan, according to Bass.
Magic guard Michael CarterWilliams said reaching the decision to keep playing wasn’t an easy one for the team, but players still see the postseason environment as an effective platform to push for social justice.
“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,” Carter-Williams said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. It wasn’t easy. It’s obviously not easy, given everything that’s going on, but I think that if we can go out there and do our best and also have a list of things that we want to accomplish, everything gets complete.
“It’s emotional. It’s not easy, but talking about those things are important. We have a big platform that we can use to really make change in this country. It starts with going home to our own cities and making some change there. It starts with encouraging people to vote. It starts with using our platform to talk to people with power in this country and creating change.”
During a meeting between players and owners Thursday, players called on owners to go beyond financial commitments toward creating social justice change with proactive measures rather than reactive ones, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported.
It was part of a tense 24 hours that shook up the sports landscape.
The seismic shift began when the Bucks refused to play the Magic on Wednesday, protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake and sparking a boycott that spread to other leagues.
While the Magic were caught off guard by the boycott, Carter-Williams said players understood the reasoning behind the decision and quickly offered their support.
Bucks forward Sterling Brown is currently involved in a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee over excessive police force stemming from a 2018 incident during which he was handcuffed, shocked with a Taser and taken into custody after initially being cited for parking in a handicap space. In the lawsuit, Brown claims he was “unlawfully stopped, subject to racist language, beaten and then subsequently tasered in a parking lot.”
“It was a quick decision that they made. It was an emotional decision. Guys in that locker room have their own personal issues with the police force in Milwaukee, so it’s very heartfelt,” Brown said. “It’s very close to their backyard. It is their backyard, so it’s understandable that what choice that they made. Maybe it wasn’t the best choice, but it is what it is and we stand with them. Maybe it was an inconvenience at the time, but I think it’s a lot bigger than that and so do we do stand with them, we support them and we’re there for them.”
After other teams joined the Bucks and all NBA playoff games scheduled for
Wednesday were postponed, the conversation shifted to what to do next.
Players met for nearly three hours, with coaches and refs joining them at various times, Wednesday night at a Disney World hotel ballroom.
The meeting was characterized as “emotional” as players and coaches tried to determine what steps to take next. Every team voiced support to continue with the playoffs, with the exception of the Lakers and the Clippers. Their preference, Wednesday night, was to stop playing, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Lakers star LeBron James said during the meeting he wants owners to be more involved and to take action, Charania reported.
By the time the players met again Thursday morning, James was among the players who shifted their position about resuming games, determining it would be in their best interest to finish the season, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.
Players association president Chris Paul had walked players through the consequences of ending the season early, voiding their Collective Bargaining Agreement and potentially cutting off pay and health insurance for all players.
While NBA players had to resolve what they needed to help bring about substantive changes, their actions inspired players in the WNBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and at the college level to suspend games or workouts to focus on fighting racial injustice.
The NBA Coaches Association released a statement supporting the players’ decision to sit out the games.
“The NBA coaches support our players 100 percent. The restart happened largely because of the platform it provided. The baseless shootings of Jacob Blake and other black men and women by law enforcement underscores the need for action. Not after the playoffs, not in the future, but now,” the statement read.
In an effort to support the players, more than 100 NBA referees staged a march inside the Disney bubble, wearing shirts that read “Everyone vs. Racism” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Athletes around the country continue to weigh responses to the shooting of Blake, who was captured on video getting shot in the back by Kenosha, Wisconsin, police while trying to get into his vehicle. His three young sons were in the vehicle and watched the shooting. Blake survived but has suffered extensive injuries.
While Wisconsin authorities have asked the public to refrain from judging the officer’s actions until an investigation is completed, the video sparked protests and anger as Black men continue to be harmed while being detained by police.