Professional leagues boycott games to bring awareness to racism in America

BY KAYLA KARIM

The NBA, WBNA, NHL, MLB, and MLS have all decided to boycott games on Thursday, August 27^th, 2020. The reason for protesting this way came in light of the recent shooting of Jacob Blake in Milwaukee earlier this week.

The protests started on Wednesday, August 26^th, within the NBA when the Milwaukee Bucks team did not show up for the pre-game warm-up, before their Game 5 versus the Orlando Magic. This gesture came as a shock to many, but not in a bad way. Although there were talks about protesting by not playing the game, very few knew if it was confirmed or not. Since that game, the rest for Wednesday evening were boycotted. It was also noted that instead of the games, a meeting took place within the NBA Bubble in Orlando, to determine the future of the season and how the players would deal with the situation at hand. ESPN’s NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that LeBron James was among the leaders of the conversation within the meeting, where he “walked out”. Shortly after it was also reported that the LA Lakers and the LA Clippers voted against continuing the season at all.

Thursday, August 27^th, was supposed to be the Toronto Raptors first game in Round 2 versus the Boston Celtics. Although many were eager for this matchup, it was the Raptors who were the most vocal in the meeting in regard to continuing the season.

Fred Vanvleet was one of the many that spoke out in regard to the emotion he was feeling saying, “You know, coming down here and making a choice to play was supposed to not be in vain, but it’s just starting to feel like everything we’re doing is going through the motions and nothing’s really changing”.

Vanvleet continued passionately, “Are we going to hold everybody accountable, or are we just going to put the spotlight on black people or black athletes or entertainers and say ‘What are you doing? What are you contributing to your community? What are you putting on the line?'”.

The game was postponed on Thursday, following Wednesday’s actions along with the rest of the matchups through August 28^th, 2020. All of the major leagues have followed suit by protesting for the rest of the week to show solidarity with black players, men, women and children.