Analysis: The NBA restart is about to restart, with purpose

restart is about to restart.

Basketball will be played again inside NBA’s bubble at Walt Disney World on Friday, albeit of practice variety. Playoff matchups are set to resume on Saturday, meaning games will have stopped for three days while players protested shooting of a Black man by police in Wisconsin earlier this week.

To shut up and dribble has never been less of an option for players. LeBron James is helping le a massive get-out--vote effort, and Stephen Curry appeared with his family in a video aired as part of Democratic National Convention last week. bubble's purpose was two-fold — crown a champion, and help players seek societal changes that simply haven’t come fast eugh for ir liking. That was what brought m to Central Florida, and ultimately, that's why y decided to stay w.

“re’s a lot of emotions built up with what’s going on," Miami’s Andre Iguodala said Thursday night from bubble at Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Iguodala, First Vice President of National Basketball Players Association — making him second-highest ranking player in union behind only Chris Paul — wrote a best-selling book last year, a 256-p memoir of his life and career.

saga of this week alone is ar story in itself, he said.

“ last 24 hours would be ar 256 ps,” Iguodala said Thursday. “It’s been very interesting.”

re was refusal to play by Milwaukee Bucks, something that caught league — and even Bucks’ would-be opponent Wednesday, Orlando Magic — by surprise. That led to two or games being called off, and ultimately a three-hour meeting involving players, coaches and ors where some suggested prudent move would be to end season.

By Thursday morning, cooler hes prevailed, and players decided to continue playoffs. Iguodala said players reminded one ar of why y decided to reboot this pandemic-interrupted season in first place — to use st of NBA playoffs as a platform to urge social change. And walking away w, many said, would do much more harm than good.

“It’s bigger than basketball, but platform is one of largest platforms on entire earth and we’ve got to continue to lever that platform,” Iguodala said. “ reason why we came down here was continuing to shed light on it. And we didn’t want that to be taken away by those who don’t want us to see that mission seen all way through.”

Some players were asked earlier this week if y were concerned that messaging — “Black Lives Matter” being painted on courts, many players and coaches kneeling en masse for national anms, phrases urging social change and awareness on back of most uniforms, all of m being steps unprecedented in NBA history — was getting stale, if re was a concern that fans were tuning it out.

That wouldn’t seem to be case w.

t playing games surely me people, wher y support NBA players or criticize ir efforts, take tice. Even President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of league and its players, said Thursday that NBA has become like “a political organization.”

Just as when pandemic hit and NBA suspended play on March 11, or leagues followed. NBA was first league to stop for coronavirus; it was first league to stop play in response to shooting of Jacob Blake in Kesha, Wisconsin, some 40 miles from Milwaukee. WNBA, some teams from Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, National Hockey League, and even professional tennis all stopped play this week as well.

“As an African American you’re facing backlash matter what decision you make,” Iguodala said. “You decide to go play and you’re being chained. But if you don’t play, you’re ungrateful. ... We’re able to go out and be vocates for issues that have come about before we got here and we’re trying to rid m. y won’t be gone before we leave or after we leave, but we going to try to make it incrementally better any way we can.”

Michael Jordan, NBA legend who w owns Charlotte Hornets, spoke to players Thursday, officially in capacity of his being league’s Labor Relations Committee Chairman — but also as a Black man struggling with challenges of se times.

Playing basketball didn’t prevent Blake from being shot seven times, apparently in back, as his three children watched. Playing basketball hasn’t provided justice for Breonna Taylor, 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot when police officers burst into her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment using a -kck warrant during a narcotics investigation on March 13. And it hasn’t helped players get over sight from May 25, when George Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes.

Restarting restart won’t keep ar atrocity from happening.

But by staying in game, NBA players clearly believe y’re staying in fight for change.

“y’re trying to find out what to do or what can y do,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers told Fox Sports West. “It’s funny. You realize you can’t solve world’s problems, but you can definitely get involved with world’s problems. And I think that’s what our guys are trying to do.”

Im credits: AP