Ballmer addressed the concerns of players such as Kyrie Irving, who questioned if the restart would take away from players focussing their efforts on the movement for racial justice by saying that participating in the return of NBA action could actually have the opposite effect and increase the visibility of their message. “The league and the NBA Players Association are also in discussions about how to elevate those to focus on those, and not take our players away from the voices they can have, but to allow them to have maybe even more voice through restarting the season,” Ballmer said.