NBA Players Decide to Resume Season, Thursday Games Postponed

The NBA players have voted to continue playing this season, though the official return date is still unknown.

Transcript

00:00 History was made on Wednesday afternoon when six NBA teams, beginning with the Milwaukee Bucks,

00:04 chose not to play their slate of playoff games in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

00:09 Later that night, news broke the LA Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers were not in support

00:14 of continuing the NBA season. However, after choosing to reconvene on Thursday morning,

00:19 the players have since decided to resume the playoffs according to a report from ESPN's

00:23 Adrian Wojnarowski. In addition to Wednesday's schedule of playoff games, Thursday's had been

00:28 postponed as well, which means the Clippers and Dallas Mavericks will not play game six of their

00:33 first round series tonight. The Athletic's Sean Strani reported that the league and players are

00:37 aiming to restart games on Friday, signaling that LA and Dallas could resume play as soon as this

00:42 weekend. Additionally, players have been reportedly been vocal about finding "new and improved ways

00:48 to make statements regarding social justice, which is understandable." Many players are frustrated

00:53 with the league's limiting the messages that can be worn on the back of uniforms, so that could be

00:56 something that we see change in the near future. Clippers personnel have seemingly played a big

01:01 role in this process. We don't know exactly what they did or said until they speak publicly about

01:04 it. What we do know, though, is that Kawhi Leonard and Doc Rivers have been very involved. The LA

01:10 Times' Brad Turner reported Wednesday night that Leonard, along with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron

01:14 James, spoke up during the meeting about not continuing play, while Wojnarowski listed Rivers

01:19 among a group of people that were leading the discussion. Additionally, Cleveland Cavaliers

01:23 forward Kevin Love tweeted, "Doc Rivers is a blank is the blank best," shortly before it was

01:29 announced that the season would resume. Throughout this time in the bubble, Rivers has been adamant

01:34 about players using this platform to bring awareness to social justice issues, but it's also

01:37 that we must let the youth lead the way. On Tuesday, Rivers will wait what his message would be to

01:42 players considering sitting out the remainder of the season, saying, "Go after your dreams. At the

01:47 end of the day, the one thing we decided when we were little kids, we're in the backyard by ourselves,

01:51 we had these news about wedding championships. Donald Sterling was not in our dreams and neither

01:55 were these cops. So they're not gonna take anybody, they're not gonna take any dreams away." There are

02:01 reportedly more meetings set to take place of the day, which are expected to include a plan of

02:04 action as the league moves forward through this process.