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George Hill of the Bucks explains why he stayed off the pitch during the national anthem prior to Game 5 vs. Magic

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After a three-day break, the 2020 NBA playoffs resumed on Saturday afternoon, with Game 5 between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic. Before the game, the players knelt during the national anthem, as became customary during the restart, but George Hill was not among them.

The veteran guard decided to stay off the field during the anthem, standing alone in the corridor. When it was all over, he returned to the pitch with his team.

After the game, as you’d expect, Hill faced questions as to why he wasn’t on track with the rest of his teammates for the anthem and the Bucks guard provided as honest of an answer as anyone could have asked. Hill went on to reveal how one of his pre-match rituals is to use the bathroom before each game, and this time, the cameras caught him returning to the pitch.

Hill was one of the leaders of the Bucks protest Wednesday when they refused to speak for Game 5 originally scheduled against the Magic in the wake of Kenosha, the Wisconsin police shooting a black man named Jacob Blake. Their intention was to force a forfeit and continue the series as scheduled, but their action spurred an impromptu strike across the league.

All matches were postponed on Wednesday and there was a brief spell of late night and early Thursday morning where it was unclear whether the season would continue. Eventually, the players reached an agreement to end the playoffs, with matches resuming on Saturday, and the teams agreed to implement a number of social justice initiatives, including using arenas as voting sites.

Though Hill is finishing the season with his teammates, he made his feelings for the bubble known earlier this week. Before the Bucks action, Hill told reporters that “we shouldn’t even have come to this damn place, to be honest.”

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