The Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers both staged a wildcat strike action yesterday in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake by a Milwaukee police officer.
Multiple teams across the N.B.A., MLS, MLB, and W.N.B.A. did not play their previously scheduled games in order to maintain solidarity of their message calling out social injustice of “Black Lives Matter.”
National Basketball Association spokesman Mike Bass, announced Thursday that its three playoff games that evening would “not be played as scheduled,” and the league is hopeful play will resume on Friday or Saturday.
Although the N.B.A. has announced its return to playoffs, the schedule for the N.B.A.’s missed games has yet to be announced.
The walkouts have triggered a momentous, unforeseen work stoppage across professional basketball, tennis, baseball and soccer.
The Bucks rapidly gained support in their team decision inspiring both the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder to redact from play yesterday.
Lakers superstar LeBron James took to Twitter with the following message:
FUCK THIS MAN!!!! WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 26, 2020
The W.N.B.A.’s Washington Mystics arrived at the arena for a game —– night against the Atlanta Dream wearing T-shirts that spelled out Jacob Blake’s name before making the decision to sit out.
The T-shirts also displayed markings on their backs representing bullet holes.
On Thursday, the W.N.B.A. announced that three games scheduled to be played would further be postponed.
Women’s tennis superstar Naomi Osaka also announced Thursday she would not be competing in the WTA semifinal tournament.
The star took to social media saying, “As a Black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis.”
Major league soccer has yet to decide what their next move is following the decision to postpone Wednesday’s matches that kicked off after the Bucks and Brewers started the chain.
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 27, 2020
With no games scheduled Thursday, the league is yet to announce whether or not teams will suit up for Friday.
Ignacio Cervantes, sports assistant, contributed to this article.