The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association plan to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the court within both sidelines in the three arenas that the league will use at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida when the 2019 season resumes. Late 20 next month, league sources told ESPN.
The WNBA is also discussing painting “Black Lives Matter” on the court when its abbreviated 2020 season begins at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, sources said.
Sources also said that some WNBA players have suggested in conversations with league superiors that players wear warm-up jerseys with “Say Your Name” written in an attempt to keep attention on women victims of police brutality, including Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead by police at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.
Players have insisted that the fight for racial equality and social justice be a central part of the NBA’s return to the game and the new WNBA season. Several NBA players considered skipping the NBA resumption in Orlando to focus on social justice issues. Several WNBA players, including Renee Montgomery of the Atlanta Dream and Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics, are sitting in the upcoming WNBA season to focus on social justice.
In a conference call with journalists on Friday, NBA and NBPA leaders said the league and union were discussing various methods of using the NBA platform in Orlando to draw attention to racial equality, social justice and police brutality. Over the weekend, Chris Paul, president of the players’ union, told ESPN that the league and the union were collaborating to allow players to wear uniforms with personalized social justice-related messages on the back of their shirts on place of the last names of the players.
The murder of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25 – with an officer, Derek Chauvin, charged with second-degree murder after kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than seven minutes when Floyd reiterated that he was unable to breathe – spurred protests nationwide. It followed the murders of Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was chased by three white men and shot by one of them during a jog in Georgia in late February. All three men were charged with murder last week.
Several high-profile players in both leagues participated in protests across the country.
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