Report: NBA season is ‘up in the air’ after players’ meeting
The NBA season is “up in the air” after the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers took a stance against concluding the playoffs, according to The Clippers and Lakers voting on perhaps not continuing with the season was considered more of a polling, than a final vote, sources tell ESPN. The resumption of the playoffs remains still up in the air.
Players held a meeting in the NBA bubble on Wednesday, per multiple So far, speakers in the meeting of NBA players tonight: NBPA president Chris Paul, NBPA VP Andre Iguodala, Kyle Korver and Clippers coach Doc Rivers, sources tell ESPN.
The Milwaukee Bucks chose not to play Game 5 of their first-round series against the Orlando Magic. Bucks players are calling for justice in the case of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot seven times in the back by police Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and is paralyzed from the waist down. They’re also demanding that the Wisconsin state legislature reconvene and “address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.”
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2020Full statement from the Milwaukee Bucks: pic.twitter.com/jjGEyVcCmB
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks)
Full statement from the Milwaukee Bucks: pic.twitter.com/jjGEyVcCmB
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) August 26, 2020
WNBA players chose not to play Wednesday night, as well.
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2020Center @E_Williams_1 reads statement on @espn as the representative for all @WNBA players. Tonight's games have been cancelled. pic.twitter.com/xDz4uCQSiD
— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream)
Center @E_Williams_1 reads statement on @espn as the representative for all @WNBA players. Tonight's games have been cancelled. pic.twitter.com/xDz4uCQSiD
— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) August 26, 2020
Players opted against playing three scheduled MLB games and five scheduled MLS games.
Lakers star LeBron James said in Wednesday night’s meeting that he wants owners to be more involved and take action, per Sources: Every team besides Lakers and Clippers voted to continue playing. LeBron James said in meeting he want owners to be more involved/take action. The meeting is 11 AM -- coinciding with the timing of the NBA's Board of Governors call, per sources. https://t.co/U8NnY4QMPb Discussions on continuing season will extend into tomorrow, sources tell ESPN, but appears unlikely the three playoff games on Thursday will be played. "Everyone is still too emotional," one high-ranking source tells ESPN. "There needs to be more time to come together on this."
Racial injustice and police brutality were issues NBA players said they hoped to draw attention to leading into the league’s restart during the coronavirus pandemic. Some had concerns that returning to play would detract from nationwide protests following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others killed by police, and remove focus from important areas.
The Sixers’ season ended Sunday when they were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. Tobias Harris, Mike Scott, Josh Richardson and Ben Simmons were among the players who discussed racial injustice with reporters. Harris and Scott pushed Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron to arrest the officers involved in the killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman. The three officers, Brett Hankison, Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, have not been arrested.
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