As the NBA planned the continuation of its season amid the coronavirus pandemic, one of its stated goals was to use play at its bubble in Orlando as an opportunity for racial justice advocacy. “Our view as a league was it was part of a responsibility,” league commissioner Adam Silver told Sports Illustrated earlier this month, “to respond to our players and to help use this platform of the NBA to get people to engage on what we acknowledge can be a very uncomfortable conversation.”
Outside of Milwaukee on Sunday, a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in front of his three children. That night, LeBron James tweeted, with a link to the disturbing footage of the shooting that quickly circulated, “And y’all wonder why we say what we say about the Police!! Someone please tell me WTF is this???!!! Exactly another black man being targeted. This shit is so wrong and so sad!! Feel so sorry for him, his family and OUR PEOPLE!! We want JUSTICE.”
“People get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as Black people in America,” James told reporters after playing on Monday night. “Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified. Because you don’t know. You have no idea.”
He was far from the only player in the NBA bubble to speak out. Jaylen Brown, who drove from Boston to Atlanta to protest in May, wrote on Twitter on Monday, “There is inequalities and injustices that carry HARSH punishments for people of color !! I watched a man get shot 7 times in front of his children they will never be able to unsee what they just saw every nerve in my body is on fire.”
And in some cases, players addressed how and whether their ongoing play was compatible with the continuing protests. “First of all, we shouldn’t have even came to this damn place, to be honest,” Milwaukee Bucks player George Hill told reporters on Monday. “I think coming here just took all the focal points off what the issues are.”
“Lives are being taken as we speak, day in and day out, and there’s no consequence or accountability for it,” he added. “And that’s what has to change.”
After Chris Paul was asked about the game he’d just played in on Monday, he replied, “That’s all good and well. I just want to send my prayers out to Jacob Blake and their family. The things we decided to come down here to play for, and we said we’re going to speak on the social injustice and the things that continue to happen to our people.”
“Sports, it’s cool, it’s good and well, that’s how we take care of our families,” he added. “But those are the real issues that we’ve got to start addressing.”
Donovan Mitchell wrote on Twitter:
In the lead-up to the bubble, players including Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard pointed to how the sport could be a distraction from the protests. The league announced that it would include jersey messaging and on-court decals as an effort to call attention to racial injustice, and said it would relax rules requiring players to stand for the national anthem. On the day after another stark reminder of what’s being protested, though, the clearest statements came from the players themselves.
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