NBA players to resume games after Blake shooting boycott: report

NBA players have reportedly agreed to return to games after Wednesday’s boycott over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday.

Sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the three playoff games on Thursday are expected to be postponed, but play could resume as early as Friday.

The league held a meeting at 11 a.m. on Thursday and there will be another meeting later in the day with two players from each team, according to ESPN. The upcoming meeting will reportedly be to discuss action plans to address racial injustice issues as well as ironing out details of restarting the playoffs.

The Milwaukee Bucks first decided not to play their playoff game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, and the NBA afterward postponed its remaining games for the day.

The boycott led to the postponement of all three games scheduled that day as teams and players across professional American sports leagues either sat out or boycotted games on Wednesday in protest of Blake’s shooting.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said Thursday he planned to contact Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James about walk-offs, which James had supported on social media. 

Earlier in the day Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, said NBA players were “fortunate” to have enough wealth to “take a night off from work” while saying he wants “actual action” in the racial justice movement.

Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot in the back seven times by a Kenosha Police Department officer as he attempted to enter his vehicle. Cellphone footage of the incident led to an eruption of protests in Kenosha and other U.S. cities.

The Justice Department and Wisconsin state authorities have launched investigations into the shooting. Blake is critically wounded and at least temporarily paralyzed, his family has said.