All three NBA playoff games scheduled for today will be postponed as players protest the August 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, the league announced.
“The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association today announced that in light of the Milwaukee Bucks’ decision to not take the floor today for Game 5 against the Orlando Magic, today’s three games – Bucks vs. Magic, Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers – have been postponed. Game 5 of each series will be rescheduled,” the league said in a statement.
Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back at least seven times by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The incident has sparked protests in Kenosha throughout the week.
Blake is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down.
The NBA protest started when players from the Orlando Magic and Milwaukee Bucks did not take the court when their playoff game was scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
The NBA announced it would postpone all games on Wednesday following reports that the other teams scheduled to play planned to boycott their games as well.
Bucks SVP Alex Lasry tweeted his support for the players’ protest:
Some things are bigger than basketball. The stand taken today by the players and org shows that we’re fed up. Enough is enough. Change needs to happen. I’m incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players ready to assist and bring about real change
— Alex Lasry (@AlexanderLasry) August 26, 2020
The restart of the NBA season in the Disney bubble has been an opportunity for players, coaches and staff to take a stand against racial inequality in the country, with many players wearing slogans on their jerseys and “Black Lives Matter” printed on the court.
Following the Los Angeles Clippers Game 5 win over the Dallas Mavericks, coach Doc Rivers also spoke on the shooting of Blake and current state of race relations in the U.S.
You can watch Rivers’ comments here:
.@DocRivers from the heart. pic.twitter.com/Qp7St7kZ1k
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) August 26, 2020
Authorities today said a 17-year-old had been charged with homicide after two people were killed and another seriously wounded by gunfire during overnight protests over the police shooting of Blake.
The burst of violence, which came amid the arrival of self-declared militia members and counterprotesters on Kenosha’s streets, followed days of tension here since police shot Blake on Sunday.
That shooting set off sometimes damaging protests across the country.
Police in Antioch, Ill., about 20 miles west of Kenosha, said they had arrested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse and described him as a suspect in the incident.
They said Rittenhouse, an Antioch resident, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin, but they did not specify whether he was being charged in one fatal shooting or both.
A police complaint filed in Lake County, Ill., by the Antioch police described him as a fugitive, saying that Rittenhouse had been charged with homicide in Wisconsin and fled “with the intent to avoid prosecution for that offense.”
According to minutes from a hearing today, he was held without bond and a hearing Friday will deal with his potential extradition to Wisconsin.