Boycott: NBA, MLB, WNBA, MLS games called off amid player protest of Blake shooting

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Making their strongest statement yet in the fight against racial injustice, players from six NBA teams decided not to play postseason games on Wednesday in a boycott 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 in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday of Jacob Blake, a Black man, apparently in the back while three of his children looked on.

Kenosha is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. That city’s NBA team, the Bucks, started the boycotts Wednesday by refusing to emerge from their locker room to play a playoff game against the Orlando Magic.

“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 was
Black and that his civil rights were violated in January 2018 when
officers used a stun gun on him after 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 NBA’s board
of governors have called a meeting on Thursday to discuss the new
developments, said a person with knowledge of the situation. The person
spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the
meeting plan was not revealed publicly.

“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.”

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.”

“I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Bucks,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers tweeted.

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.”

Several NBA players, including the Lakers’
LeBron James, tweeted out 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,” National Basketball
Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts said.

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.

Taylor,
a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot when police officers burst
into her Louisville, Kentucky apartment using a no-knock warrant during a
narcotics investigation on March 13. The warrant was in connection with
a suspect who did not live there and no drugs were found. Then on May
25, Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee
into the Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes — all captured on a
cell phone video.

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.”

Professional sports has seen both strikes and lockouts in the past, almost always over salary disputes. But this wouldn’t seem to classify as a strike, even though it was initiated by players, since their dispute is not with the NBA. Boycott, meanwhile, is defined as the act of refusing to engage in an action, usually to express disapproval with some condition.

Reynolds reported from Miami.

Previous coverage

ORLANDO, Fla. (CNN/WISH) — The Milwaukee Bucks will not play their scheduled game against the Orlando Magic.

The Bucks, scheduled for a Game Five matchup in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, have decided to boycott the game, according to ESPN.

Adrian Wojnarowski reports “players made this decision in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin, ultimately deciding that they wouldn’t leave the locker room for the start of Game 5 against Orlando.”

“We’re tired of the killings and the injustice,” Indianapolis native George Hill, a guard for the Bucks, told The Undefeated.

Blake was shot in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday. Kenosha police have not said much about the incident, which was caught on video by bystanders.