NBA Players Divided Over Whether to Restart Season or Sit Out in Protest

With nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, several prominent NBA players have suggested sitting out the season as a protest.

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving reportedly said on a call with over 80 NBA players, "I don’t support going into Orlando. I’m not with the systematic racism and the bullsh*t. Something smells a little fishy."

The NBA has been working on a plan to resume their season in Orlando next month.

Irving, a VP of the NBA Players’ Union, reportedly added, “I’m willing to give up everything I have," and “There's only 20 guys actually getting paid.”

Garrett Temple, a fellow guard for the Brooklyn Nets and VP of the NBA Players’ Union, had a different take than Irving.

“The difference in the economic gap between white America and black America is astronomical,” Temple said. “I can’t in good conscience tell my brethren to throw away millions of dollars in order to create change that I don’t see the direct impact of — if there was a direct impact of laws changing, that would be a different story. So, when people bring up not playing — we are a few black men that can make a little bit of money. It is not a lot of money when you think about it in the grand scheme of America. But we can start having a little bit of money, create a little bit of generational wealth.”

Many high-profile players reportedly disagree with Kyrie Irving's position and want the NBA to return to finish the season. Another motivating factor: if players sit out the rest of the season, the owners can and likely would activate the ‘force majeure’ clause to re-open the collective bargaining agreement. That scenario might give the players little leverage to negotiate a new deal at a time when the NBA is considering playing without fans during live games for the 2020-2021 season. 

Here are some more takes from NBA players on whether to resume playing games:

Lakers center Dwight Howard: "No basketball until we get things resolved"

Clippers guard Lou Williams: “Sports has been a healing factor but in this climate it is a distraction."

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley: ““Hoopers say what y’all want. If @KingJames said he hooping. We all hooping. Not Personal only BUSINESS🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 🙏🏾 #StayWoke ✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿”

Celtics center Enes Kanter: “I have so many friends on different teams, right? I was actually talking to one of my friends, and he said – I’m not going to tell who or which team – but he said, ‘There’s so many guys on our team, that they’re not going to play.’ They’re actually in the Eastern Conference. They’re in a playoff spot. And they’re like superstars. If I told you who it is, you’d go crazy. I just can’t tell you who it is. But he said, ‘Hey, they’re not going to play.’ They said until they found a vaccine, until they find a cure, that they’re not going to play.”

Heat forward Solomon Hill: “We wore ‘I can’t breathe’ t-shirts, we met with ‘local’ police, nothing moved. nothing came from it, at all. we shouldn’t have to give money continuasly to communities, our government has more than enough to do so, to build its citizens up the same way it built other.”

Rockets guard Austin Rivers: “Us coming back would put money in all of our (NBA players') pockets," Rivers writes. "With this money you could help out even more people and continue to give more importantly your time and energy towards the BLM movement. Which I'm 100 percent on board with. Because change needs to happen and injustice has been going on too long."

Michelle Roberts, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, asked about coronavirus, gave an answer that also speaks to players sitting out in protest.

Roberts said no player is being mandated to play and there will be no repercussions — besides financially — if a player decides to sit out the season.

“Not a single player has to play. This is not involuntary servitude. I don’t have to work. They don’t have to work,” said Roberts. “But it’s of course a mitigation of risk with the players. On this health and safety protocol, I’m satisfied that it can’t be any better than this. But I’m candid that it’s not bulletproof.”