-
PHOTOS: A look at the loss of the Rockets to the Thunder in Game 4
Houston Rockets players take a knee during the national anthem for Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Monday, August 24, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Kevin C. Cox / Pool photo via AP)
less
PHOTOS: A look at the loss of the Rockets to the Thunder in Game 4
Houston Rockets players take a knee during the national anthem for Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the
… more
Photo: Kevin C. Cox, Associated Press
PHOTOS: A look at the loss of the Rockets to the Thunder in Game 4
Houston Rockets players take a knee during the national anthem for Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Monday, August 24, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Kevin C. Cox / Pool photo via AP)
less
PHOTOS: A look at the loss of the Rockets to the Thunder in Game 4
Houston Rockets players take a knee during the national anthem for Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the
… more
Photo: Kevin C. Cox, Associated Press
Shortly after the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their playoff game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, the Rockets-Thunder and Lakers-Blazers games were also called up.
NBA TV had video of a handful of Thunder players doing a few early shots on the court about two hours before the game when a Thunder player came on the court to talk to them, then left them all the court together. NBATV also had video of Russell Westbrook of the Rockets and Chris Paul of the Thunder, showing what appeared to be a meeting between the two leaders of the team.
FIRST BOYCOTT: Milwaukee Bucks decide to close game Wednesday afternoon
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced today that in light of the Milwaukee Bucks’ decision not to take the floor today for Game 5 against the Orlando Magic, the three games today – Bucks vs. Magic, Houston Rockets “Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers – have been postponed. Game 5 of each series will be replayed,” read an NBA statement.
Rockets and Thunder players were already in discussions about boycotting the game, as were the Blazers and Lakers, when the NBA and NBA Players Association agreed to postpone the all-day schedule.
Jacob Blake, a black man, was shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisc., About 40 miles south of Milwaukee on Sunday, as he tried to enter his car where his three children were. were inside.
Bucks guard George Hill told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated that they do not play because “we are tired of murder and injustice.” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, whose team plays the Jazz on Thursday, tweeted: “WE ASK JUSTICE !!!” The Lakers’ LeBron James, who is due to play the Blazers on Wednesday night, tweeted: “F — this, man. We demand change. Sick of it.”
On Tuesday, Rockets’ Robert Covington spoke out in despair that the players could not influence change from within the NBA bubble.
“We do all this to make it really conscious and it’s not done too much,” Covington said. ‘Every day we’re afraid we’m going outside those friends and family, you never know you might get a phone call that someone close to you might not make it to see the next day.
‘It’s scary … to grow that feeling in this world right now. Nothing is done. They still did nothing to (Breonna Taylor) and the cops who killed her. We have long advocated here. It’s just that people don’t take initiative, they don’t take the approach they need to. “
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that “NBA players called in Orlando last night to determine next steps.”
