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NBA Players Reportedly to Meet Wednesday Following Postponed Playoff Games
August 26, 2020
Every NBA player who is in the bubble at Walt Disney World Resort reportedly is invited to attend a meeting on Wednesday night after the three scheduled playoff games for the day were postponed in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe reported the news, noting the meeting is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
This comes after Wojnarowski reported the Milwaukee Bucks decided to refuse to play Wednesday's game against the Orlando Magic.
Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets decided to do the same, and the NBA soon announced the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers was also postponed.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported one veteran player said "the season is in jeopardy" when discussing the planned meeting. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports noted "There's a sizable amount of players advocating to finish the season out since sacrifices were made to enter the bubble, believing the NBA platform is a useful resource in this social climate."
According to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, head coaches and assistant coaches were also invited to the meeting.
"We're tired of the killings and the injustice," Bucks guard George Hill told Marc J. Spears of ESPN's The Undefeated.
A number of players reacted to the Bucks' decision, including LeBron James (NSFW language):
Haynes reported earlier Wednesday before any decisions about the games were made that the NBA Players Association executive committee held discussions with a number of players who said "they're not in the right frame of mind to play basketball."
Many NBA players joined the worldwide protests following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black people before the league restarted its season in a bubble.
The efforts have continued inside the bubble with messages, such as Black Lives Matter, written on the court and the backs of jerseys.
Yet, Haynes reported many players "are emotionally traumatized by the latest police-involved shooting" in Wisconsin.
Eric Levenson, Alisha Ebrahimji and Christina Maxouris of CNN reported video emerged of police shooting Blake multiple times in the back as he attempted to get inside an SUV with his children inside.
Blake's family said he is paralyzed from the waist down and remains in the hospital.
According to CNN, Wisconsin authorities arrested Kyle Rittenhouse and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide after two people were killed and a third was seriously injured during a shooting at a protest in the aftermath of the police shooting of Blake.