LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – The Milwaukee Bucks’ decision to boycott Game 5 of their first playoff series against the Orlando Magic prompted the NBA to postpone all three games on Wednesday.
The NBA said the three Game 5s (Bucks-Magic, Houston Rockets-Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers-Portland Trail Blazers) would be rescheduled.
“We are tired of the murders and injustices,” Bucks guard George Hill told ESPN’s Marc Spears, explaining his team’s decision.
Milwaukee is located about 40 miles north of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the city where 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a black man, was shot seven times by police on Sunday, his father, also named Jacob Blake, said. Blake was shot while attempting to enter the driver’s door of his vehicle with three of his children inside. The video of the shooting was distributed on social media.
The Bucks, who were supposed to play Magic at AdventHealth Arena here inside the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World Resort at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, refused to leave their locker room before the game, as league officials they are huddled out of it.
Some players, including center Brook Lopez, worked before the game. But when it came time for the team to speak about 15 minutes before the tip, as is customary for an NBA game, only the Orlando players, as well as the referees working on Wednesday’s game, took the floor. There was no activity on the Milwaukee side of the court.
Then, with only a few minutes left on the game clock before the scheduled tipping time, the Magic players slowly walked off the pitch and returned to the locker room, leaving only the four referees out. Eventually, Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s vice president of referees and training, told them to give the floor.
Shortly after, the game balls were removed, as were the various accessories on both sides – such as the badges for each player’s assigned seat and the cushions some of them sit on – removed from each of the bench areas.
The only Bucks to leave the locker room were Hill and All-Star Khris Middleton, who used the bathroom and returned. There was also a Milwaukee video staff member who came out and picked up some computers and cables that were installed on the team bench and returned to the back of the arena.
After the Bucks decided to sit down on Wednesday, players across the league tweeted their support. LeBron James tweeted in all capital letters: “Fuck THIS MAN !!!! WE ASK FOR A CHANGE. SICK.”
Other tweeted from within the bubble included Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz and Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets.
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