Portland Trail Blazers at Los Angeles Lakers

Boycott: NBA playoff games called off amid player protest

Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.

"Some things are bigger than basketball," Bucks senior vice president Alex Lasry tweeted. "The stand taken today by the players and (the organization) shows that we're fed up. Enough is enough. Change needs to happen. I'm incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players ready to assist and bring about real change."

There are three other playoff games scheduled Thursday. It was unclear if they would be affected. Several NBA players, including the Lakers' LeBron James, tweeted out messages demanding change and the Boston Celtics' official Twitter account did the same.

"We weren't given advanced notice about the decision but we are happy to stand in solidarity with Milwaukee, Jacob, and the entire NBA community," Orlando guard Michael Carter-Williams said. "Change is coming."

Magic players and referees were on the basketball court for the game but Milwaukee never took the floor. Eventually everyone else left and the arena staff soon took the balls, towels and tags that go on player chairs back inside.

National Basketball Players Association President Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder and guard Russell Westbrook of the Houston Rockets were seen emerging from a conversation, not long before it became known that their teams also decided to not play their scheduled game Wednesday.

"Today we stand united with the NBA Office, the National Basketball Players Association, the Milwaukee Bucks and the rest of the league condemning bigotry, racial injustice and the unwarranted use of violence by police against people of color," the Magic and its ownership group, the DeVos family, said in a statement.

Demanding societal change and ending racial injustice has been a major part of the NBA's restart at Walt Disney World. The phrase "Black Lives Matter" is painted on the arena courts, players are wearing messages urging change on their jerseys and coaches are donning pins demanding racial justice as well.

Many players wrestled for weeks about whether it was even right to play, fearing that a return to games would take attention off the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.

Bucks guard George Hill said after Blake's shooting that he felt players shouldn't have come to Disney.

"We're the ones getting killed," Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who is Black, said in an emotional postgame speech Tuesday night. "We're the ones getting shot. We're the ones that we're denied to live in certain communities. We've been hung. We've been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear. It's amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back. And it's just, it's really so sad."

Less than two hours later, the Bucks wouldn't take the floor.

The postponed NBA games came on the fourth anniversary of Colin Kaepernick's very first protest of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before an NFL preseason game. Kaepernick sat through the anthem for his first protest, which he said was to protest racial inequality and police mistreatment of minorities. then famously kneeled during the anthem going forward.

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Reynolds reported from Miami.

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