We all know what has gone on the last couple of days. NBA players have gone on strike and forced the NBA to postpone games as a way of protesting against the shooting of black men and women in this country that was sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. On Thursday, the players came to the conclusion to end the holdout and continue the playoffs.
That raises the question, is this too soon to start play again? Did the players do enough to get the word out that they mean serious business in the world of social change?
Personally (Producer Austin here), I think they did. The shock of teams not playing and seeing that ripple out across league after league was incredible. It was powerful. In the last 48 hours, I have had tons of conversations that have opened my eyes to major issues. I've spoken to police officers and found out why someone would react the way the officer did in the Blake shooting, I've spoken to black people about what they go through in safer moments with police, and I've had conversations about what would be the best options moving forward. If I was able to have productive conversations, and I'm just some guy on the radio, I hope that leaders in communities had these same conversations to improve our world. Now they can go back to playing and the threat of the next strike is always hanging over the NBA. I think Miami head coach Manny Diaz said it best in this tweet.
What do you think?