NBA referees left the hardwood and hit the curb on Thursday, marching in support of boycotting players, who refused to play in light of Jacob Blake’s Wisconsin shooting.
Referees who live and work inside the NBA bubble near Orlando wore black shirts with the words “Everybody vs. Racism” outside their Disney hotels.
Their protest comes after the NBA playoffs were postponed Wednesday. With the entire NBA season in the balance, the league’s Board of Governors will meet on Thursday.
The referees the union said in a statement On Thursday its members were marching “against racism and grieving the black lives taken too soon”.
“Join us as we unite in the bubble, and around the world, to fight injustice and police brutality,” the union said.
The show of support for the players comes despite their strained relationship between the two groups in recent years.
Three Major League Baseball games, three WNBA contests and five Major League Soccer matches they were also canceled Wednesday in light of Blake’s upheaval.
Wednesday’s sports boycott was led by the Milwaukee Bucks, who normally play their home games at Fiserv Forum, nearly 40 miles south of where Blake was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer on Sunday, officials said. .
Viral video footage of the clash appears to show Blake walking away from the police before an officer, identified as seven-year veteran Rusten Sheskey, opened fire from behind at close range.
Blake is currently paralyzed from the waist down by the shooting, family members and lawyers said.
