NBA referees march for social justice inside Orlando bubble

The refs are also taking action in the NBA bubble, marching for social justice.

The NBA has been in the headlines in the last couple of days. The Milwaukee Bucks decided to boycott their Game 5 playoff game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. That resulted in a domino effect, as players in the WNBA, MLB, MLS all had games postponed because of the solidarity strike. This was in an effort to bring attention to racial and social injustice towards the African American community, and the most recent incident of police brutality involving Jacob Blake.

Thursday morning, there was more action taken to bring light to the racism and police brutality that has been affecting the Black community. The NBA referees marched around the campus in the Orlando bubble as a group against racism. The majority of the referees wore a black t-shirt that read “Everybody vs. Racism”. Some of the others who didn’t wear that specific shirt wore similar shirts, showing support for the Black people and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The NBA players and coaches meet Wednesday night about the next steps

The shooting of Jacob Blake has sparked a plethora of emotions and opinions from NBA players. Their mission during the NBA restart was to use that platform to make more people aware of the police brutality and systemic racism that has plagued African Americans for hundreds of years. With another unarmed black being shot consecutive times by police since the restart, the players feel like they are not being heard and need to take bigger and more drastic actions.

The players and coaches held what was called an “emotional” meeting Wednesday night. During the meeting, some players were frustrated that the Bucks didn’t notify the Magic or the other teams scheduled to play that they were planning to boycott. That decision put the Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Portland Trailblazers in a tough spot in terms of if they should play their games. The shooting of Blake occurred in Kenosha Wisconsin, so Milwaukee felt that they should take the lead since they play about 40 miles from Kenosha.

It was reported that the Lakers and Clippers took voted to boycott the rest of the season during the meeting. LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard made it known during the call that they are fine with foregoing the rest of the season. James also mentioned that NBA owners need to do more to show support for the players and fighting racism. The other teams voted to continue with the season.

There was no plan in place after Wednesday’s call, but both the players and the board of governors will have a meeting at 11 a.m. Thursday. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, there is optimism that the majority of the players want to continue the playoffs.