Both the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers canceled their games Wednesday night in the wake of the shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake Sunday.
Blake was shot in the back seven times by Kenosha, Wisconsin police while trying to enter his vehicle.
The Bucks were scheduled to play in Game 5 of the first round in the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Orlando Magic, but they boycotted their game. In response to this, the NBA decided to cancel the remaining games for the evening, which included an Oklahoma City Thunder game against the Houston Rockets, and a matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers.
In a post game press conference Aug. 25, Los Angeles Clippers head coach and Marquette alum Glenn “Doc” Rivers responded to the shooting of Blake and the Republican National Convention.
“What stands out to me is just watching the Republican Convention, and they’re spewing this fear. All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear. We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones that are denied to live in certain communities. We’ve been hung, we’ve been shot,” Rivers said in an ESPN interview. “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.”
In a statement, the NBA announced the cancellation of all games and said that Game 5 of each series will be rescheduled. In a report from Shams Charania, NBA reporter for The Athletic, the NBA is now in talks with its players this evening to determine the “next steps.”
Around two hours after the news of the Bucks boycotting their game, the Brewers cancelled their regular season game against the Cincinnati Reds.
Brewers reliever Brent Suter made a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Our team and the Reds felt that with our community and our nation in such pain, tonight we wanted 100% of our focus to be on issues that are much more important than baseball,” Suter said.
Closer Josh Hader also spoke with MLB.com in the wake of this decision.
“It’s more than sports. This is a time where we need to really not stay quiet and (to) empower our voices,” Hader said.
This decision has reached other teams as well, as the Seattle Mariners have cancelled their matchup against the San Diego Padres, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants also postponed their game.
This story was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at j[email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGross6.
