NBA players have decided to resume the playoffs after a morning meeting, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, but the league has postponed the three games originally scheduled for Thursday.
News of the decision comes after players decided to boycott games on Wednesday in protest over the shooting of Jacob Blake and social injustice.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, after extensive meetings Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, there was a change in position among LeBron James and other players that it was in their best interest to finish the campaign in the bubble.
In a statement released on Thursday, the NBA says it is “hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday.”
“There is a video conference call meeting scheduled later this afternoon between a group of NBA players and team governors representing the 13 teams in Orlando, along with representatives from the National Basketball Players Association and the league office and NBA Labor Relations Committee Chairman Michael Jordan, to discuss next steps.”
Among Thursday’s slate of games now postponed is Game 1 of the Toronto Raptors-Boston Celtics second-round series, which was set for 6:30 p.m. ET. Game 6 of Round 1 between the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz (scheduled for 4 p.m. ET) will also be played at a later date, as will Game 6 between the Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks (scheduled 9 p.m. ET).
The player-led movement to boycott games began Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks made the decision not to take the court for their 4 p.m. ET tip-off against the Orlando Magic, instead remaining in their locker room through warmups, contacting Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul, and forming a team statement about the need for increased action in the face of anti-Black racism and police brutality.
“It is imperative for the Wisconsin State Legislature to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform,” the Bucks said in their formal statement Wednesday night. Milwaukee is about an hour’s drive north of Kenosha.
Shortly after the Bucks’ decision not to play was announced, the Magic agreed that their Game 5 should not go on as scheduled. Teams from the rest of the evening’s schedule — Games 5 of the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers vs. Los Angeles Lakers — quickly followed suit, and the NBA sent out a release stating that those matchups would all be rescheduled.
The historic night made loud and clear the need for justice and change, with the NBA’s group of athletes leading the conversations and using their platform inside the Orlando bubble in an effort to propel forward action and change outside of it. Other leagues followed suit — the WNBA postponed all games inside their own bubble Wednesday, with players from opposing teams joining in solidarity on the court wearing T-shirts spelling out Blake’s name with seven bullet holes painted on the backs in what was a particularly poignant moment. A number of MLB and MLS games were also postponed at the urging of their players, and U.S. tennis star Naomi Osaka announced Wednesday that she was withdrawing from the Western & Southern Open ahead of her semifinal match on Thursday.
Blake, a 29-year-old unarmed Black man, was shot seven times in the back by police on Sunday while trying to get into his car with his children inside. Many players have spoken of the trauma and grief they’ve felt in the days since seeing video of Blake, who is now paralyzed from the waist down, and about feeling the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement slow down upon the games in Orlando picking up. Efforts to continue conversations with social justice messages on jerseys and Black Lives Matter messaging on and around the courts was not enough, with some players even questioning whether they should have even come to the bubble in the first place.
An all-players meeting Wednesday night inside the bubble about how to move forward saw two teams — the Lakers and Clippers, according to Charania — initially vote to end the remainder of the season, but ongoing conversations late into the night and again Thursday morning ultimately led to the decision to continue the season.
More talks will take place on Thursday between team owners and players to determine the course of action to be taken on social justice issues moving forward.
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