NBA players decide to resume playoffs after one-day boycott

On Thursday, NBA players decided to resume playoffs one day after several games were scrapped in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

League officials said three playoff games scheduled for Thursday would not go on as scheduled. Officials are “hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday,” NBA Executive Vice President Mike Bass said in a statement issued Thursday.

The decision was first reported by ESPN following an 11 a.m. meeting of players.

A group including NBA officials, players, and players’ association representatives plan to meet Thursday to discuss next steps, Bass said.

On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks announced a boycott of Game 5 of their NBA playoff game with the Orlando Magic, prompting the NBA to postpone all three of the day’s scheduled games. The other canceled games pitted the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Several other sports teams followed suit, including the Milwaukee Brewers, who had been slated to play the Cincinnati Reds, and the Seattle Mariners, who were set to face off against the San Diego Padres, according to KIRO-TV. A game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants was also canceled while all three WNBA games scheduled for Wednesday -- involving the Atlanta Dream and the Washington Mystics, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx and the Connecticut Sun and the Phoenix Mercury -- were postponed.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Bucks said they were boycotting the day’s game over inaction in the wake of Sunday’s shooting by Kenosha police which left Blake, a 29-year-old father of five, paralyzed from the waist down.

“Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protesters,” the team statement said.

“Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball. When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement.”

Cox Media Group