Following Boycott, NBA Players To Resume Playoffs, Per Report
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – After boycotting Wednesday's playoff games in protest over the shooting of Jacob Blake at the hands of Wisconsin police, NBA players Thursday tentatively decided to continue with the season.
After meeting Thursday, the players decided to resume playing at some point this weekend, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
The players and the NBA Board of Governors, which is made up of team owners, met separately Thursday. The two sides will meet together later Thursday.
The league released a statement confirming that no games would be played Thursday, with the hope that games would resume "either Friday or Saturday." There were three games scheduled for Thursday, including Game 6 of the Los Angeles Clippers series with the Dallas Mavericks.
All this comes after a heated meeting among players and coaches Wednesday night in which the L.A. Lakers and Clippers voted in favor of ending the season, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported. Lakers star LeBron James purportedly walked out of the meeting, with the rest of the Lakers and Clippers players in tow.
The historic boycott was sparked when the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday afternoon refused to play Game 5 of their series against the Orlando Magic just minutes before tip-off.
The teams involved in the two other games slated for Wednesday -- the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers – followed suit and boycotted as well.
The Bucks' move also sparked a wave of similar cancellations across Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer. The L.A. Dodgers tilt with the San Francisco Giants was canceled, as was LAFC's match with Real Salt Lake and the L.A. Galaxy's match with Seattle.
