NBA players plan on resuming their postseason. According to multiple media reports on Thursday morning, the Bubble-wide meeting among players that began at 11 a.m. concluded with them coming to an agreement on playing games again, something that seemed up in the air following a contentious meeting that occurred the previous evening, when the two Los Angeles teams voiced their support for leaving the Orlando Bubble altogether.
That, however, had changed, with several reports indicating that everyone is on board with starting the season back up following a day-long strike.
Yahoo Sources: There was a change in position from last night with LeBron James, among others, relaying it was in their best interest to finish out the season.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) August 27, 2020
NBA player to me on whether there were any outliers: “No, everyone agreed to re-start the season.”
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) August 27, 2020
One of the teams that was on board with calling the whole thing off last night, the Lakers, reportedly held several meetings following the resumption of Wednesday’s meeting to talk things through.
The Lakers players met as a group a couple of times since last night’s meeting, including this morning before they went into the group meeting with the rest of the teams. https://t.co/EQRi9fwhhB
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) August 27, 2020
That seems to have been one of the reasons why things went the way they did yesterday. One of the reason why players were not collectively on the same page reportedly stems from the fact that the Milwaukee Bucks, which kicked off the strike on Wednesday, did so without consultation with other players.
Yahoo Sources: Significant source of frustration in meeting last night stemmed from players not being on the same page and emotions got the best of some. The hope from the collective was after a good night’s sleep, they could reconvene and get it to this point. Playoffs are back.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) August 27, 2020
One reason why players are on board with resuming playing is everything that has happened up to this point to get to and play in the Bubble, while players’ families will be able to join them in the Bubble soon to provide some “sense of normalcy.”
Sources: Players today discussed the sacrifices all of them have made to reach this point in the postseason, and sense of normalcy returning with families entering Disney Campus. Players who voted not to play on Wednesday night understood.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 27, 2020
The big question that looms now is what’s next? Players seemed ready to end the Bubble experiment altogether in the name of fighting systemic inequality and the repeated killings of Black individuals by the police, and while this strike brought that battle into the spotlight following Kenosha officers shooting Jacob Blake in the back and paralyzing him, players want conversations to be turned into actions.
According to reports, there will be meetings among players and, eventually, owners to map that all out. And when it comes to games, those could resume as early as Friday, but the belief is apparently that they’ll start back up sometime this weekend.
Sources: There will be another meeting later today with two players per team. https://t.co/EghY102JcM
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) August 27, 2020
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
There is a meeting of NBA owners and players set for later today, sources tell @MarcJSpears and me. The discussion is expected to include plans of action moving forward on social justice issues.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2020
Sources: NBA players — and league — are aiming to restart games Friday.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 27, 2020
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
What players end up wanting owners to commit to — More money being invested into communities of color? Every NBA arena turned into voting centers? Asking them to use the power they inherently possess as billionaires to turn the heat up on politicians to make drastic changes? — remains to be seen, but it does seem like these questions will be answered sometime later on Thursday.
