Social justice coalition puts players back on court
Support from league, owners ends threat to cancel season. Raptors open series Sunday
An emotional and historic week has ended with NBA players convinced they have enough tangible support from the league’s leaders and franchise owners to feel comfortable resuming the playoffs.
A three-pronged program aimed primarily at voting issues surrounding the November elections in the United States and the creation of a social justice coalition announced Friday has assuaged the concerns of players willing to end the season just two days ago.
Three games will be played Saturday and three on Sunday to restart the season again; the Raptors and Boston Celtics will play Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
There was no immediate confirmation of Games 2, 3 and 4.
The joint league-union initiatives include:
Asocial justice coalition — players, coaches and league governors — to focus “on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.
In each city where the team owns or controls its arena, the team “will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID.”
There will be “advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting greater civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity.”
The Raptors obviously can’t throw the Scotiabank Arena open as a voting space but, led by coach Nick Nurse, they have been on a push to encourage voter registration for the more than 650,000 Americans living in Canada.
It is unclear how the Raptors will address any Canadian-specific social justice issues. Team officials did not comment after the league and the union made their statement.
It was paramount to the players that they get some tangible commitments from franchise owners and the league before they would agree to continue the playoffs that have been on hold since Wednesday. A series of meetings over two days involving players, coaches, union executives and league officials resulted in Friday’s announcement.
“What we’re doing right now in our league is huge,” NBPA president Chris Paul, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, told reporters in Florida on Friday. “I think for the young guys in our league to get a chance to see how guys are really coming together and speak and see real change, real action, because guys are tired — and I mean tired. When I say tired, we’re not physically tired, we’re just tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.” The NBA and WNBA were driving forces in what was basically a shutdown of sports across the spectrum this week, a shutdown that allowed for discussion of systemic racism and police brutality
Miami Heat forward Andre Iguodala, a vice-president of the National Basketball Players Association, issued a rebuke on CNN to President Donald Trump, who called the NBA a political organization.
Iguodala was interviewed in the wake of NBA players boycotting playoff games this week in protest of systemic racism and the recent shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.
“Well,” Iguodala said, “when your people are being treated the way our people have been treated for hundreds of years, it's not a political organization or a political agenda, it's a human organization, it's a human agenda. And that's where (we) stand on that.
“And that's why, say, it comes at a point in time where we might haven taken a pause in the entertainment business to shed light upon these experiences that we're witnessing through the technology, and through the devices that are in one's hands, and supposed to be part of the process of holding people accountable for their wrongful actions.”
Iguodala's comments were in response to Trump's comments on the NBA of: “I know their ratings have been very bad because I think people are a little tired of the NBA, frankly, but I don't know too much about the protests. But I know their ratings have been very bad, and that's unfortunate. They've become like a political organization and that's not a good thing.”
In addition, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said, “Look, I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially.”
In the wake of that back-andforth, Heat forward Solomon Hill posted Friday on Twitter, “Crazy telling athletes to remove politics or it's not our job. Politics is basics, it surrounds everything we do as Americans.”