Game 5 on Wednesday night between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers has been officially postponed.
After the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play game 5 of their first round streak against the Orlando Magic Wednesday afternoon, the NBA announced that all three scheduled games would be postponed:
This comes after the two teams would “lean to” strike for Game 5, according to Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes. According to reports from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers have held a team meeting to discuss plans for the upcoming game.
Milwaukee refused to play Wednesday’s game against Orlando to protest police shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to Wojnarowski.
Lakers star LeBron James provided a powerful reaction after the Bucks made the first move to refuse to play their game.
“F-K THIS MAN !!!! WE ASK FOR A CHANGE. SICK,” he wrote on Twitter.
Many NBA players have taken part in protests against police violence and systemic racism in the past few months after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was shot dead in Minneapolis police custody in May. A call led by Kyrie Irving asked players to skip the NBA resumption to help maintain momentum for the anti-racial injustice movement, via Charania.
This call included Lakers players Dwight Howard and Avery Bradley, the latter of whom decided to forgo the reboot.
The shooting in Wisconsin restarted concerns that the games were a distraction from important matters.
Los Angeles Clippers manager Doc Rivers delivered a powerful statement following his team’s game on Tuesday.
“It’s amazing why we continue to love this country, and this country doesn’t love us back,” Rivers said. “It’s really that sad. Like, I’m supposed to be just a coach. My color often comes to mind. It’s just very sad. We have to do better. But we have to ask for better.”
Players from all six teams scheduled for Wednesday have now decided not to play to focus on movement and protests.