National Basketball Association

Taking A Stance

Updated Jul. 12, 2021 11:05 a.m. ET

By Martin Rogers

There is a chance that what happened this week didn’t even surprise you much, because after all, this is 2020, and with "normal" barely still existing as a concept, we’ve at least partly lost our ability to be shocked.

As the Milwaukee Bucks’ decision to sit out the first playoff game of the day in peaceful protest morphed into a wider boycott that incorporated both the rest of the NBA and several other sports, the realization quickly dawned: this was really happening.

Yet the lingering reach of an afternoon and evening where sports stepped to the forefront of the national political discussion - by taking a step back - will not be quickly forgotten. Make no mistake, even as it passes in real time, this is a moment that will form part of the tale of these troubled days as they go down in history.

There was no NBA basketball on Wednesday, and the same went for Thursday, as the three scheduled playoff games were postponed.

Then, Friday, the players made perhaps their most direct statement – at least, in terms of what they want to achieve. The league and its players association announced that yes, games would resume Saturday. But they also had concrete goals that they wanted, if not outright demanded, the owners' help in achieving.

That is because many of the players that make up the best league in the sport found a breaking point, one stark enough to make them play the strongest card in their hand.

They found it in the shooting last weekend of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, located about 40 minutes outside of Milwaukee. The Bucks made the first move, withdrawing from Game 5 of their playoff series against the Orlando Magic in the early tipoff slot. And then, it snowballed from there.

Before long three Major League Baseball matchups, five Major League Soccer fixtures, a WNBA triple-header and Thursday’s action at the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament had been called off.

Many questioned the rationale. What were the goals?

We found out Friday. The idea is to sit down in the hope that we, the public, including NBA owners and executives, move towards fixing social injustice and race inequality, and the athletes are conveying it in the most forceful way they know how.

"For these players to be walking away from the game right now says so much," former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall said on FS1’s First Things First. "Because it is not in our DNA not to play – because the field, the tennis court, the basketball court: this is our sanctuary."

The boycotts were both a call to action and a wish to be part of meaningful change. The Bucks, while sitting in their locker room in the Florida bubble, spent time on telephone calls with Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul and lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes.

The points the players brought up stemmed from a topic that not everyone wants to address. This is a divided country, with complicated layers to it. Wherever you stand, at least consider this. They cared enough to risk what they have worked for and did so knowing there would be precisely the kind of backlash that inevitably followed.

This column doesn’t seek to take a side, but instead to look at this for what it is - a movement and a time where something significant far beyond sports is taking place. Collectively, NBA players wanted the country to know that they are fed up and angry and frustrated and frightened, and if you don’t know it after this then you’re not paying attention.

"They have said, ‘This is worth it, we are willing to sacrifice,’" FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Bucks reporter Zora Stephenson said. "The beauty of this country is the ability to stand up for what you believe in. Whether you believe or agree with what people are standing up for, you have to respect when people take a stance on something - and don't just talk about it but act upon it."

Yes, it is often hard to find a united message, even when the intent is the same. NBA players are hurt and furious in unison, but there remained disagreement on how best to proceed.

In the end, though, they came together and lifted their voice, as one, to make their goals known.

"They aren’t going to shut up, and for now they aren’t even going to dribble," wrote Yahoo Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel. "At least not while emotions are raw, the opportunity is rare, and the belief they can do so much more than just be basketball players is at hand."

What the players now know is that they have the ability to get people to sit up and take notice. This is a crude calculation, but there was a combined social media following of more than 400 million in the room when these NBA meetings were taking place. That’s the force that they are trying to tap into.

Athletes are not politicians, yet they are beginning to understand there is a certain leverage, and that the power comes in their visibility. No one is going to tell them to stick to sports, or if they do, they’re not going to listen.