Every basketball fan’s biggest nightmare has come true today. The NBA season is once again in jeopardy after the Milwaukee Bucks decided to boycott Game 5 of their playoff series vs. the Orlando Magic in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting.
The NBA community has been quite outspoken regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and social injustice issues in the United States. In fact, they only agreed to restart the season as long as they had the chance to vow their concerns and views.
The aftermath of Jacob Blake’s shooting in Wisconsin has made plenty of players question whether coming back to play was worthless, as they felt like they could use their platform to inspire change after the death of George Floyd.
Now, the Bucks decided to take a step forward by not coming out of their locker room and boycott Game 5. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to break the story about Milwaukee’s decision.
Bucks Boycott Game 5 Of The Playoffs, Other Games At Risk:
“The Bucks players made this decision in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin, ultimately deciding that they wouldn’t leave the locker room for the start of Game 5 against Orlando,” Wojnarowski tweeted.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets were also set to face for Game 5 of their 1st round series but now that’s yet to be seen, especially considering Chris Paul has been quite outspoken about the matter lately and he’s the president of the NBA Players’ Association.
Today’s fixture was going to end with the clash between Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. Then again, the circumstances could pressure both teams into not showing up and also boycotting the game.
Whether the NBA is going to enforce any kind of penalty or hand the win to the Magic is yet to be seen. The league is known for supporting the players’ views in these kinds of matters but we don’t know where they’ll stand this time.