Milwaukee Bucks players' decision to boycott their Wednesday playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., has created a ripple effect through sports programs across New England and around the country.
The league postponed Thursday's NBA playoff games, which includes the Boston Celtics' first game against the Toronto Raptors, and issued a statementsaying they are hoping to restart the playoffs Friday or Saturday.
In Chestnut Hill, the Boston College football team canceled their scheduled Thursday practice. Instead, players and coaches spoke to one another as a group about racism.
Eagles Head Coach Jeff Hafley told reporters he met with the team's leadership council to talk about not practicing and could tell it was the best thing for the team.
"And the biggest thing that kept coming up was, 'What can we all do to help?' And I think we helped today. I think we helped today educate some of our players who really didn't know what it was like," Hafley said. "And then they get to hear a story of one of our players and what they've gone through in their life and what some of their family members have gone through in their life and how they feel. You know, how scared they are at times and how emotional they are right now."
The New England Patriots held their practice Thursday, but afterwards safety Devin McCourty was somber as he shared his thoughts with the press.
"I've been thinking a lot the last couple of days and I've had so many different emotions of being angry, being sad," he said. "I've felt very hopeless. And I don't have a statement. Like, I don't have anything powerful. It's just been very disheartening, just watching things transpire, watching lives still be lost. And it's not just police brutality. It's just everything we deal with."
On Wednesday, shortly after the NBA postponed games for the rest of the night after players on other teams joined the Bucks in solidarity, players on the teams in the WNBA bubble who were scheduled to play that night, including the Connecticut Sun, came together and also decided against playing.
Thursday morning, the Sun players released a statementexplaining that decision.
"Our decision to not play in last night's game came after careful thought and deliberation. It is important for us as basketball players and humans to acknowledge and stand against the continued instances of social injustice that happens on a daily basis in this country," the statement read. "As we reflect on the senseless violence and grieve collectively as mothers, daughters and women, we will continue to advocate for the victimized and unheard."
Eddy Chrispin, is president of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, spoke with WGBH News just as the Bucks protest was unfolding. He said anything that gets people's attention is good.
"I think, for a lot of these athletes, regardless whether or not they're worth $10 million, $20-$30 million dollars, when they walk out into the world, most of them are Black and brown men," he said. "So I think this should affect how they go about their daily lives. And I think given the fact that they have this celeberity status, they have the ability to garner a lot more attention than if you or I went out there and started discussing these issues."
In 1961, five Black members of the Boston Celtics sat out of a game in Lexington, Ky., when a restaurant refused to let future Hall of Famer Bill Russell to have a seat.
Now, nearly 60 years later, history is repeating itself. Only this time, the echo may be louder and broader than ever before.
