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Tim BontempsESPN
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association Director Michele Roberts released a joint statement Friday announcing that the NBA playoffs will resume Saturday, and that the NBA and its players will work together on various initiatives to promote voice access and combat of social justice, racial inequality and police reform.
“These commitments follow months of close collaboration to design a safe and healthy environment to resume the NBA season, and provide a platform to promote social justice, as well as create an NBA foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community, “Silver and Roberts said in the statement. “We look forward to repeating the playoffs and continuing to work together – in Orlando and across all NBA teams’ markets – to push for meaningful and lasting change.”
These obligations include:
– The immediate establishment of a coalition for social justice, including representatives among players, coaches and team owners, which will address a wide range of issues, including increased access to votes, fostering civic engagement, and advocating for “meaningful police reform” and criminal law. “
Specifically on the voting front, in every NBA city where the league’s franchise owns and controls its arena, owners will work with local officials to create those arenas in voting locations for the 2020 general election, giving voters a way to vote in person during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And if that is not possible, there will be an attempt to use these facilities in other ways, including potentially a place to register voters and receive ballot papers.
Some NBA teams – including the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets and Utah Jazz – have already announced that their arenas will be available to use as voting locations in November.
– The NBA has agreed to work with both the players and their broadcast partners to create advertising that will appear during each NBA playoff game to promote greater civic engagement in national and local elections, and to raise awareness about access to voices.
The statement, and the announced steps in it, came two days after the Milwaukee Bucks chose to play in Wednesday’s playoff game against the Orlando Magic in response to a shot by Jacob Blake, a Black police officer. man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The Bucks’ decision began a move that not only spread to the other 13 teams in the NBA’s bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort, but also to several other sports, including the WNBA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League,
It also came in the wake of a meeting between players and coaches of all 13 teams still participating in the playoffs and the owners of those teams, such as Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, the chairman of the The NBA’s Labor Relations Committee, Thursday afternoon, discussed both the league’s schedule for returning to play and coming up with specific points, such as the one mentioned above, to combat the problems that players have been in the bubble for the past two months. have spent and passionately talked about.
Teams returned Friday to practice, although several canceled scheduled media availability early Friday afternoon. There was no indication that teams planning to practice later Friday would follow suit.
The games that were scheduled for Wednesday – Bucks-Magic, the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers against the Portland Trail Blazers – are expected to be played on Saturday, while the games are scheduled to take place on Thursday. – the Utah Jazz vs. the Denver Nuggets, the Toronto Raptors vs. the Boston Celtics and the LA Clippers vs. the Dallas Mavericks – would be played Sunday. From there, the playoffs would then resume as planned.
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