Sports stars refuse to compete in protest over Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin
Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore
Sports stars in the US refused to play as part of a protest against the shooting of a black man in Wisconsin which left him paralysed.
Stars from basketball, baseball, football and tennis boycotted fixtures in solidarity with Jacob Blake, and it remains to be seen when they'll take to the field of play again.
Mr Blake was shot seven times by police in Kenosha last weekend, while three of his children in his car looked on.
The shooting has sparked riots and has once again shone the light on race relations in a bitterly divided country.
The NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks refused to leave their dressing room for their playoff game on Wednesday, and two other fixtures were postponed later in the day, as it marks the second time the basketball season has come to a halt this season.
Other sports followed in its wake, just as they did in March when sports were suspended for four months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shortly before their game against the Bucks, Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams said: “The biggest thing that we all understand is if we’re not playing, what are we doing?
“What are we doing to show and to help what’s going on outside this bubble?”
Hours later, the Bucks players emerged from their dressing room, demanding action from polticians and encouraging voting by citizens.
NBA players and coaches met for nearly three hours at the Disney hotel in Orlando to discuss their next steps and whether the season should continue.
Former Barack Obama throws his support behind the protests
The WNBA also did not play their scheduled games. Ten players each wore white shirts with a letter of Jacob Blake's name printed on the front, with seven bullet holes on the back to symbolise how many times he was shot by police.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka said she was pulling out of her semifinal match at the Western & Southern Open in New York, scheduled for Thursday, saying “before I am an athlete, I am a black woman”, with the tournament later announcing it would suspend play for the day.
Osaka, the highest paid female athlete this year, added: “Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach.”
And in the MLS, America's premier soccer competition, San Jose Earthquakes players left the stadium where they were scheduled to take on the Portland Timbers.
Before coming to the Disney resort in Orlando, NBA players were at odds about whether to resume the league amid fears it would divert attention away from the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
But now Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse, whose team won the NBA championship last year, said some of his players are considering going home.
They are scheduled to open the second round Thursday against Boston, but Nurse said his players were already having discussions about not playing.
“Boycotting the game has come up for them and again, as a way to try to demand a little more action and I think that’s really what they want,” Nurse said.
“It’s going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values,” former President Barack Obama tweeted, commending the NBA and WNBA players.
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