LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The NBA’s players have decided to resume the playoffs, but Thursday’s scheduled playoff games will not be played, according to the NBA.
In a statement, the NBA said that the league is “hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday” and a “video conference call meeting” is scheduled Thursday with a group of NBA players, team owners, and representatives from the National Basketball Players Association, the union for professional basketball players.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news late Thursday morning.
The WNBA announced later that Thursday’s games will be postponed as well. The Women’s National Basketball Players Association announced that the league’s players “have declared [Thursday] a Day of Reflection and a Day of Informed Action and Mobilization.”
Per Charania, the players “want to find new and improved ways to make social justice statements,” according to sources.
In a powerful moment on NBA TV Thursday, former NBA player Caron Butler asked anchor Kristen Ledlow how she feels about the current situation in the NBA “as someone that comes from a different walk of life.”
Ledlow replied, “while I can’t grasp it from your perspective, you’re not alone in it.”
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported early Thursday that “conversations have been ongoing” around the league about how to restart the NBA playoffs ahead of separate meetings with NBA players and the league’s Board of Governors.
Wojnarowski also reported that many players stayed up until the early morning hours of Thursday discussing issues.
After the Milwaukee Bucks did not take the floor for their game Wednesday against the Orlando Magic, the Oklahoma City-Houston and Lakers-Trail Blazers also boycotted their games.
A number of WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games were also postponed related to the boycotts.
Jared Kushner, White House senior advisor and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, told CNBC Thursday that the NBA players who boycotted 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.”
Kushner went on to say that “with the NBA, there’s a lot of activism, and I think that they’ve put a lot of slogans out. But I think what we need to do is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that’s going to solve the problem.”
Presidential candidate Joe Biden shared the statement by Bucks players, applauding the players for “standing up, speaking out, and using their platform for good.”
Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot multiple times in the back by police Sunday while he reached into the SUV where his three children were sitting.
The shooting was captured on cellphone video and has ignited new protests over racial injustice in several cities. Blake is paralyzed from the waist down, his family said.
Police officers unsuccessfully used a Taser on Blake and a knife was found on the driver’s-side floorboard of his vehicle, authorities said. It’s unclear if the responding officers knew about the knife before the shooting.
