The fate of the NBA season remains in a holding pattern after teams decided to sit out their scheduled playoff games on Wednesday night as a form of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake and to put pressure on lawmakers and team owners to enact some kind of tangible change. The decision to postpone all three of Wednesday’s games came after the Bucks announced that they were sitting out Game 5 of their opening-round series against the Orlando Magic in protest.
Since that announcement, players inside the bubble have been meeting to try and collectively decide whether they will finish the season or cancel the remaining games altogether. News has emerged from inside that meeting that both the Lakers and Clippers were in favor of canceling the season and leaving Orlando, but that their stance was apparently odds with the rest of the teams.
They’re scheduled to reconvene Thursday morning, just as the NBA’s Board of Governors will be meeting via telephone to discuss a way forward. During the meeting on Wednesday, there was reportedly some frustration among other teams about the Bucks’ unilateral decision to sit out their game against Orlando — with Jaylen Brown of the Celtics apparently stepping up in full support of the Bucks decision.
Told the players’ meeting ended “ugly,” per a source, with uncertainty about what will happen tomorrow. The union will be present at the special Board of Governors meeting, per a source.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) August 27, 2020
Sources to @YahooSports: There was frustration with Milwaukee players for doing this without talking to others. LeBron James initially stated he would go with the consensus, then got angry and stormed out.
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) August 27, 2020
Sources: As some in tonight’s meeting wanted to hear Bucks’ explanation for making an abrupt decision independent of rest of teams to boycott game, Boston’s Jaylen Brown essentially said that the Bucks didn’t need to explain themselves and he fully supported what they did today.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2020
It’s important to note the tensions and stress of this moment were almost always going to lead to some frustration and emotions running high in a meeting to, basically, determine whether they should go on strike. Still, it was something Kyle Korver reportedly addressed when he spoke on behalf of the Bucks and apologized for how it left the rest of the league’s players out of the loop.
Sources also say that Kyle Korver apologized for the way the Bucks made the decision not to play without alerting other teams. This element has clearly frustrated teams around the league, and Korver made the choice to address it.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 27, 2020
Nothing was decided officially during their meeting, and it’s possible that LeBron, Kawhi, and the Lakers and Clippers’ hard-line stance is an effort to exert even more pressure on the owners to come up with some sort of solution during their meeting Thursday morning that the players would find satisfactory enough to continue with the playoffs. Until then, it’s a wait-and-see game to find out whether we’ve seen the last of the NBA this season, as all parties seem to have much more to discuss to all get on the same page.