NBA postpones three playoff games after Bucks refuse to play in protest of social injustice

Three days after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., the Milwaukee Bucks did not take the court as scheduled for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series with the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. An hour later, the NBA postponed all three playoff games scheduled on the day.

No new date was announced for the games between the Bucks and Magic, Rockets and Thunder or Lakers and Blazers.

Bucks guard George Hill was among NBA players who questioned whether games should continue amid social justice protests across the country. Hill said Monday that NBA players “shouldn’t have even came to this damn place, to be honest,” because playing in the bubble “took all the focal points off what the issues are.”

The Bucks and Magic were scheduled to play the first game of a playoff triple-header on Wednesday with a scheduled tip time of 4 p.m. EDT. But only the Magic took the court for the traditional pregame warmups, with the Bucks remaining in their locker room. When the game clock ticked down a few minutes before the scheduled tip-off, the Magic left the court and returned to their locker room.

The protocol for a forfeit or a postponement was not immediately clear in the arena, as league and team staffers scrambled for word of the Bucks’ decision.

Bucks players began emerging from the locker room around 4:35 p.m., walking past a group of reporters but not stopping to make any statement. Bucks players Khris Middleton and guard Donte DiVincenzo were both dressed in their team issue gear as if they had been ready to play. Hill wore a black T-shirt with a Barack Obama quote on the front and “Change the Narrative” on the back.

Bucks General Manager Jon Horst briefed reporters around 4:40 p.m., indicating that the team would remain in the locker room for some time and might not address the media on Wednesday evening.

“We’re not coming out for awhile,” Horst said. “There will be a team statement.”

The Bucks franchise has had multiple incidents with police brutality and racial profiling in recent years. Bucks guard Sterling Brown sued the city of Milwaukee after he was injured during an incident with police, and former center John Henson spoke out publicly after he was denied service by a Milwaukee jeweler.

The Bucks, the East’s top seed, hold a commanding 3-1 lead in the series with Game 6 scheduled for Friday and Game 7 scheduled for Friday.

A group of Bucks players turned out for a July protest in Milwaukee with T-shirts that bore some of George Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe.” Sterling Brown, Donte DiVincenzo, Brook Lopez, Frank Mason III, reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brother Thanasis joined the crowd.

This is a developing news story and will be updated.