Players on the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder jointly decided not to play Wednesday’s Game 5 of their first-round series in the NBA playoffs, as first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The decision follows a choice by the Milwaukee Bucks to boycott Game 5 of their series against the Orlando Magic over the shooting of Jacob Blake, which occurred in the greater Milwaukee area.
Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was shot multiple times in the back by police officers Sunday while he was leaning into an SUV. Police were responding to a domestic dispute call.
Blake is in stable condition, paralyzed from the waist down, according to his father and Ben Crump, the family’s attorney. Blake was unarmed. Three of his six children were in the car when the shots were fired.
The outrage over shooting of Blake comes approximately three months after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and an associated wave of protests in early June, which had some NBA players questioning whether to restart the 2019-20 season at all — out of fear that it could distract from the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Decision made. Thunder and Rockets are boycotting Game 5, sources said. https://t.co/SCNAjsQYea
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 26, 2020
As for the Rockets and Thunder, whose series remains deadlocked at two games apiece, it is unclear when it will resume. The mutual decision to boycott came after All-Star guards and NBA veterans Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul met in a back hallway at the Disney World arena site, seemingly as the lead representative for each of their teams.
The NBA issued a statement late Wednesday saying that the games would be rescheduled, though a new date has yet to be released.
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Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook met for 10 minutes pre-game before telling NBA officials that they would boycott this game. pic.twitter.com/nxj3cT4ICO
— Salman Ali (@SalmanAliNBA) August 26, 2020