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Milwaukee Bucks BOYCOTT NBA playoffs game over Jacob Blake shooting
Players from the Wisconsin NBA franchise the Milwaukee Bucks have agreed to boycott the fifth game in their playoff series against the Orlando Magic, citing the recent police shooting of an African-American man in nearby Kenosha.
Magic players showed up on the court on Wednesday afternoon, trailing the Bucks 3-1 in the series, but the opposing team was nowhere to be seen. Multiple sports reporters said the players decided just before tipoff not to leave the locker room.
“We’re tired of the killings and the injustice,” Bucks’ point guard George Hill told reporters.
Wearing a ‘Coaches for racial justice’ T-shirt, Bucks’ coach Mike Budenholzer said it was “a great challenge… to go out and play a game” when one wants “something different and better” for Kenosha, Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
"It is a great challenge to have an appreciation and a desire to want change. To want something different and better in Kenosha, Milwaukee and Wisconsin and then to go out and play a game." pic.twitter.com/BCmHZdFf1P
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) August 26, 2020
The gesture comes three days after police in Kenosha – a city of some 100,000 residents south of Milwaukee – shot and seriously injured Blake, a 29-year-old African American during an altercation. Protests against the incident quickly became violent, as rioters set fire to a number of buildings and shops.
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