Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The games will continue — just not immediately.
According to multiple reports, NBA players have decided to continue with the playoffs. The decision was made following a players' meeting Thursday morning.
Thursday’s games — including Game 6 of the Utah Jazz-Denver Nuggets series — will be postponed. NBA executive vice president Mike Bass said the league is hopeful that plan can resume on Friday or Saturday. As of Thursday evening, the NBA had yet to announce when the games would resume, leaving many around the league to believe the likely earliest restart day would be Saturday.
On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks sat out Game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The incident was captured on video and has gone viral.
Following the Bucks' protest, the league announced all games Wednesday would be postponed. Players, meanwhile, started communicating on whether or not to stay in Orlando and finish the playoffs.
Players met on Wednesday night to discuss the next course of action, which included the possibility of the season being canceled. Those concerns grew when the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers were reportedly the most vocal in discontinuing the season and leaving the NBA bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
That meeting ended without a true resolution and the players decided to come together again the next morning when the decision was made to keep playing. Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, the majority of teams and owners issued statements in support of the players' actions.
A video conference was held on Thursday afternoon to determine the next steps. The call featured NBA players and team governors from the 13 teams which remain in the Orlando bubble, along with representatives from the National Basketball Players Association and the league office.
