The NBA player strike in protest of police brutality and social justice will end this weekend, with playoff games resuming on Saturday, according to the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn. Game 1 of the Boston Celtics Semifinal
series against the Toronto Raptors will now be played on Sunday. As of now, the exact schedule has not been released, and according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowki, that will be finalized later today.
In a statement, the NBA said “NBA playoff games for today will not be played as scheduled. We are hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday. There is a video conference call scheduled later this afternoon between a group of NBA players and team governors representing
The Raptors and Celtics talked at length on Wednesday about the possibility of a protest, but at that point hadn’t solidified any plans. That changed with the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the floor later that evening for Game 5 of their opening round series against the Orlando Magic. They released a statement afterwards reading, in part, “the past four months
Boston’s Jaylen Brown was reportedly very vocal in meetings involving players. According to Washburn, Brown challenged players who wanted to leave, saying “if we go home are we going to be on the front lines? If not, we might as well stay and play.”
Another element to players deciding to stay was that many families are already in quarantine and about to join them inside the bubble. The feeling of “we’ve come this far, we might as well finish” seemed to be a driving force behind the resumption.
“We obviously agree that whether we play or not, we still have to do our best to make change,” Orlando’s Michael Carter-Williams said. “We still have to do our part in the community. I think that’s the biggest thing. It wasn’t easy, it’s obviously not easy given everything that’s going on, but I think if we can go out there and do our beset and also have a list of things we want to accomplish, everything gets complete.”
