NBA creates social justice coalition
Playoffs resume today; Celts-Raptors start series Sunday
The Celtics were scheduled to hold a media availability session Friday at noon that was to include head coach Brad Stevens and possibly a couple of players as well.
It was an anticipated opportunity to speak to members of the Celtics, who for days had been part of a powerful movement that started in the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble and expanded across the professional sports landscape. Beginning Wednesday, NBA teams had chosen not to play their playoff games in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisc. The NBA had already been utilizing its platform and voice to take a stand against the numerous other past examples of racial and social injustice, such as the May police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the March police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.
As the clock struck noon and minutes continued to tick by with no sign of Stevens or a Celtics player on the scheduled Zoom call, it became quite evident that the Celtics
would join the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors and cancel their Friday availability session. The C’s officially announced the cancellation via an email at 12:35 p.m.
Minutes later, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Executive Director Michele Roberts released a joint statement announcing that NBA playoff games will resume today and that the league will work with players on ambitious initiatives to further collective efforts and actions in support of social justice and racial equality.
“These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community,” the statement said. “We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together — in Orlando and in all NBA team markets — to push for meaningful and sustainable change.”
Silver and Roberts said there was a candid, impassioned and productive conversation (Thursday) between players, coaches and team governors. All parties agreed to resume playoff games today, with the understanding that the league will work with the players to enact the following commitments:
1. The NBA and its players have agreed to immediately establish a social justice coalition, with representatives from players, coaches and governors, that will be focused on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.
2. In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors 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. If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.
3. The league will work with the players and network partners to create and include 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.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, the president of the NBPA, spoke to the media on Friday and elaborated on the emotional roller coaster of the last few days.
“What we’re doing right now in our league is huge,” Paul said. “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. Like, 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.”
Paul said that he was able to talk to Jacob Blake’s father and it was a very emotional discussion.
“We’re all tired of seeing the same thing over and over again, and everybody just expecting us to be OK just because we get paid great money,” said Paul. “We’re human, we have real feelings and I’m glad that we got a chance to get in a room together to talk with one another and not just cross paths and say ‘good luck in your game today.'”
The Milwaukee Bucks started the movement of choosing not to play when they did not appear on the court for Wednesday’s playoff game against the Orlando Magic. Kenosha is just 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
The rest of the remaining NBA playoff teams followed the Bucks lead, as did teams in the WNBA, MLS, MLB and NHL over the last few days.
The playoffs will resume today at 3:30 p.m. with the Bucks and Magic in the opener of a tripleheader.
The Celtics and Raptors will play Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for Thursday night.