North American sporting events postponed as athletes protest

The National Basketball Association was supposed to have three exciting playoff games on Wednesday as the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers looked to advance to round two of the playoffs. However, the games never took place. When the first game in the Orlando bubble between the Bucks and Orlando Magic was supposed to start, the Bucks decided not to come on to the court.

The reason for the protest was related to issues of racial injustice according to Reuters Media. The Bucks organization was concerned about the shooting of African-American man Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin this past weekend. The protest by the Bucks led to further postponements in the NBA, WNBA, MLB, tennis and MLS.

The NBA has agreed to continue its season. Games scheduled for this past Wednesday will now be played on Friday. Games scheduled for Thursday will now play Saturday. The Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers met and initially voted to boycott the remainder of the 2020 NBA Playoffs, however every other NBA team left in the playoffs voted to continue to play according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. 

In Major League Baseball, there were three games which were postponed on Wednesday as teams recognized the Bucks’ position. Those games featured the Milwaukee Brewers versus the Cincinnati Reds, the Seattle Mariners versus the San Diego Padres, and the Los Angeles Dodgers versus the San Francisco Giants. More games are expected to be postponed on Thursday.  Five of six Major League Soccer games on Wednesday were also postponed, while the WNBA has postponed their games from Wednesday and Thursday.  Meanwhile the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open in New York have been moved from Thursday to Friday.

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