NBA board to meet Thursday in wake of Wednesday's player walkout
Wednesday playoff games postponed in protest of Jacob Blake shooting
The NBA's board of governors will meet Thursday morning and likely address whether the playoff games scheduled for Thursday will be played.
The Toronto Raptors are scheduled to play the Boston Celtics in the first game of their second-round series at 6:30 p.m. ET and head coach Nick Nurse has acknowledged that players from both teams have had discussions on whether to take the court.
The league meeting comes after players from six NBA teams decided not to play post-season games on Wednesday in a walkout that quickly reverberated across other professional leagues.
Also called off: Some games in Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the three WNBA contests, as players across four leagues decided the best way to use their platform and demand change was to literally step off the playing surface.
Players made the extraordinary decisions to protest the shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday.
Kenosha is about 50 kilometres south of Milwaukee. That city's NBA team, the Bucks, started the protest actions Wednesday by refusing to emerge from their locker room to play a playoff game against the Orlando Magic.
WATCH | Milwaukee Bucks boycott Game 5:
"There has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball," said Bucks guard Sterling Brown, who joined teammate George Hill in reading a statement on the team's behalf. Brown has a federal lawsuit pending against the City of Milwaukee — alleging he was targeted because he is Black and that his civil rights were violated — in January 2018 when officers used a stun gun on him over a parking violation.
Other games that were not played: NBA playoff games between Oklahoma City and Houston, and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland; three WNBA games; MLB games between Milwaukee and Cincinnati and Seattle and San Diego; and five MLS matches. Two members of the St. Louis Cardinals sat out their team's game with the Kansas City Royals as well.
"The baseless shootings of Jacob Blake and other black men and women by law enforcement underscores the need for action," the NBA Coaches Association said in a statement. "Not after the playoffs, not in the future, but now."
WATCH | Bucks players George Hill, Sterling Brown read team statement:
The statement by the Bucks also called for state lawmakers to reconvene and take immediate action "to address issues of police accountability, brutality, and criminal justice reform."
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers responded, on Twitter: "I couldn't agree more. Thank you, Bucks."
The NBA did not say when Wednesday's games would be played or if Thursday's schedule of three more games involving six other teams would be affected. NBA players and coaches were meeting Wednesday night to determine next steps, presumably including whether the season should continue.
"We fully support our players and the decision they made," Bucks owners Marc Lasry, Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan said in a joint statement. "Although we did not know beforehand, we would have wholeheartedly agreed with them. The only way to bring about change is to shine a light on the racial injustices that are happening in front of us."
Added Jeanie Buss, the governor of the Lakers, in a tweet: "I stand behind our players, today and always. After more than 400 years of cruelty, racism and injustice, we all need to work together to say enough is enough."
WATCH | Bucks, Magic players exit arena following Milwaukee's Game 5 boycott:
Several NBA players, including the Lakers' LeBron James, tweeted messages demanding change. Some teams including Boston, Orlando and Utah released messages supporting the players.
"We weren't given advanced notice about the decision but we are happy to stand in solidarity with Milwaukee, Jacob, and the entire NBA community," Orlando guard Michael Carter-Williams said. "Change is coming."
Magic players and referees were on the basketball court for the game but Milwaukee never took the floor. The National Basketball Referees Association said it "stands in solidarity" with the players, and teams including Orlando and Boston released statements or tweets of support.
"Players have, once again, made it clear — they will not be silent on this issue," the association's executive director, Michele Roberts, said.
WATCH | CBC Sports' Morgan Campbell discusses the effect of sports protests:
Demanding societal change and ending racial injustice has been a major part of the NBA's restart at Walt Disney World. The phrase "Black Lives Matter" is painted on the arena courts, players are wearing messages urging change on their jerseys and coaches are donning pins demanding racial justice as well.
Many 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.
Hill said after Blake's shooting that he felt players shouldn't have come to Disney.
"We're the ones getting killed," Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who is Black, said in an emotional speech Tuesday night. "We're the ones getting shot. We're the ones that we're denied to live in certain communities. We've been hung. We've been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear. It's amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back. And it's just, it's really so sad."
Players from Boston and Toronto met Tuesday to discuss boycotting Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, which had been scheduled for Thursday. NBPA officers were part of those meetings, and Miami forward Andre Iguodala — one of those officers— said around 2:15 p.m. that he did not believe a boycott plan had been finalized.
Things apparently moved quickly: Less than two hours later, the Bucks wouldn't take the floor.
"When you talk about boycotting a game, everyone's antenna goes up," Iguodala said. "It's sad you have to make threats like that — I wouldn't say threats — but you have to be willing to sacrifice corporate money for people to realize there's a big problem out there."
WATCH | CBC Sports' Devin Heroux on NBA protests:
