THE NBA (National Basketball Association) halted play in March when Rudy Gobert, the French center of the Utah Jazz, tested positive for Covid-19. The league had to bite the bullet as the pandemic is no joke.
When play resumed on July 31, the sporting world applauded. The Walt Disney complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, is the NBA’s new venue for the remainder of its season. A most suitable choice as the massive Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) compound not far from Orlando is simply tailor fit to house the playoffs-bound teams in the restructured format lasting three months. They’ll be there until October in what is now known as the NBA bubble.
It didn’t matter that the NBA restart was heavily tinged with calls for social reform, foremost of which is the league’s total embrace of championing the centuries-old fight against racism in America in the aftermath of the brutal death on May 25 of Black George Floyd, who expired after a white Minneapolis policeman pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.
Reform-inspired messages like “Black Lives Matter” were painted on the Epcot courts, with the same slogan emblazoned on black T-Shirts worn every single day by everybody, whether white or Black, whether player or coach, while on the bench.
I love it.
Most players and coaches knelt while the national anthem was played before every game, and 29 messages of social change were on many of the players’ jerseys, like equality, peace, love, education, I can’t breathe, how many more? etc.
Then last week, Black Jacob Blake was shot seven times at the back while his three kids looked on in Kenosha, Wisconsin, some 50 kms from Milwaukee.
In protest, the Bucks abandoned their game against Orlando on Thursday, sparking a second stoppage after the crippling virus attack five months back.
But after three days of brain-wracking by officials and the players’ leaders to solve the stalemate, Sunday (30 August, PHL time) was picked for the second restart.
I can only applaud. You don’t win a cause by walking away from it.