The Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic were set to play Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday in the Orlando bubble.
But in light of Sunday’s shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, located about 40 miles south of Milwaukee, the Bucks elected not to play and did not show up for warm-ups before the game. The NBA and Players Association later announced that in light of the Bucks’ decision not to take the floor, Wednesday’s three playoff games (Game 5 of Bucks-Magic, Rockets-Thunder and Lakers-Blazers) will be postponed and rescheduled.
This set off a chain reaction, as Wednesday’s WNBA games, including the Dream’s contest against the Mystics, also were postponed, as was the Brewers-Reds, with others possibly coming.
The Chicago Sun-Times, citing Blake’s father, has reported that Blake is paralyzed from the waist down.
For Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, who has been leading NBA coaches in the fight for racial justice and leads the NBA Coaches Association’s committee on racial justice, the pause from games was necessary. Taking into account the civil unrest following the shooting of Blake, in addition to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and also the coronavirus pandemic and the contained nature of the Orlando bubble, with players unable to easily leave and come back, halting games was a good step, in Pierce’s opinion.
“It’s needed,” Pierce said. “Orlando has become a fascinating situation. We’ve never seen this in any of our lives. We’ve never seen a professional sports league have to take their entire league, or basically their entire league, to resume the season to one place and really just hunker in. Kudos to the NBA for what they’ve been able to accomplish. But the unintended consequences during a time of social unrest, and during a pandemic, and really a separation of family, there are unintended consequences that come with that.
"And we’re just witnessing what our players and our coaches and our league, we’re witnessing that they’re human. We’re all human. We feel, and we have emotions that are being expressed and the protests is a representation of that. There’s a lot going on mentally and emotionally, being apart from your family, being separated, dealing with the social unrest, dealing with the pandemic all at once. And the only way to really address it with power and with solidarity is to put a halt to the games and have that real conversation that a lot of people have avoided.”
Pierce did not take a stance on whether games should be halted altogether, mentioning that that’s up to the players. He has been in contact with some people in the bubble and said that coaches, the league and players are trying to figure out an action plan when it comes to advocating for police reform.
“What’s being addressed is what can we all do to address the situation in an actionable manner,” Pierce said. “The players want to do more, that’s why they keep saying, ‘Why are we here in Orlando?’ If you’re not in Orlando, what are you doing? I’m not in Orlando, and I’m still trying to figure out what to do, what can I do? The power of a collective voice allows you to come up with something and to execute it, and that’s what is being discussed and figured out.”
Pierce discussed issues of police reform, voting and legislation, but as far as what an action plan specific to the NBA will look like, he said figuring that out is the process that’s taking place now.
“I know what it looks like; I don’t know what it looks like from the position of the NBA,” Pierce said. “What it looks like is we’ve got to put leaders in position, that’s where voting comes in. We’ve got to allocate and invest in communities that are underrepresented. That’s where we can make a major impact as a league. We can encourage other leagues and corporations to do so. I know what it looks like locally, because it isn’t just one thing, it isn’t something that’s going to happen in the next week. But what we as a league, and what we as a league are trying to focus on is what can we do now to address specifically areas of police reform. That’s the hot topic. That’s the one that has the anger and the frustration boiling over.”
In addition to Pierce, several Hawks players offered support via social media to the Bucks opting not to play and the NBA deciding to postpone games, with Trae Young tweeting that he’s proud to be a part of the league. On Tuesday, the Hawks’ team account tweeted about how to demand action, with the contact information of city officials in Kenosha and the hashtag #JusticeForJacobBlake.
Backup point guard Jeff Teague gave Bucks guard George Hill, and the whole Milwaukee team, a shoutout on Twitter. According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Hill said this Monday of action his team can take after Blake was shot: “We can’t do anything. First of all, we shouldn’t have even came to this damn place, to be honest. I think coming here took all the focal points off what the issues are.”
Hawks backup guard Brandon Goodwin also gave the Bucks a shoutout on Twitter. Pierce had previously weighed in on the shooting of Blake, saying on Twitter, in all caps: “A black man shot 7 times in his back by the police in front of his kids. What’s the strategy to avoid this?”
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