NBA players have agreed to resume the 2020 playoffs, with the league planning to resume play as soon as Friday, according to media reports.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, both the players and league are on board with the Friday target. In all, three playoff games on Wednesday and three more on Thursday were postponed as a result of civil unrest.
Since Game 5 of the first-round series between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder (now tied, 2-2) was the second to be postponed, it appears likely that it would be among those to resume on the first day.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski noted that while Friday is the goal, it could take until “the weekend.” The NBA has yet to make an announcement.
Sources: NBA players — and league — are aiming to restart games Friday.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 27, 2020
The news comes a day after the playoffs were halted due to civil unrest stemming from the police shooting of Jacob Blake, with many players searching for ways to better use their platforms to promote change.
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.
Focus of this meeting will be formulating action plans to address racial injustice issues as well as ironing out details of restarting playoffs, per source.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) August 27, 2020
The outrage over the Blake shooting 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.
The Rockets announced a plan Thursday to use Toyota Center as an election voting site in October and November, which could be seen as positive action in the wake of player boycotts.
[lawrence-related id=37001,36995]
The resumption of playoff games could come as soon as Friday, but there is expected to be a return to this season by the weekend, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/A2PazNKDhy
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2020