NBA players take a stand

Playoffs are back after teams boycott

Robert Benavides Jr. | THE RIDER

As a statement to support the Black Lives Matter movement, NBA players chose not to play last Wednesday after the shooting of Jacob Blake.

The protest began with the Milwaukee Bucks not taking the floor moments before Game 5 in their first-round matchup against the Orlando Magic. Soon after, players from the L.A. Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets also chose to not play. All these teams were set to play last Wednesday.

After teams set to play last Thursday showed signs of also boycotting their games, the NBA decided to postpone their games and have a meeting, including all teams, last Wednesday night.

 During the meeting, the L.A. Lakers and the L.A. Clippers, arguably the two teams with the greatest chance of winning the championship, voted to boycott the rest of the season and left the meeting early after voting.

The vote was not set as a final vote, but more of a poll as reported by NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.

After several conversations among each other in the NBA bubble and meetings that took place, teams have come to a collective decision to continue with the playoffs, but with changes that will help make social justice statements, as reported by Shams Charania for the Athletic.

This protest in the NBA sparked a protest of other sports including the WNBA, professional baseball teams, soccer teams and tennis players, such as Naomi Osaka, who chose not to play last Wednesday.

The NBA resumed playoff games last Saturday and released a joint NBA and NBPA statement that showed what they want to do moving forward.

The joint statement includes, “In every city where the league franchise owns and controls property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election.”

It seems the players and the NBA felt that this was something that needed to be done moving forward, and their way of making a change. This is just one of the commitments included in the statement. To read the full statement visit https://www.nba.com/article/2020/08/28/nba-npba-joint-statement-social-justice. 

There are many differences in opinion on the matter at hand, but the NBA is doing what they believe is best in support of social justice and racial equality.