The calendar of the NBA is very tight this season, not only because it has to end before August but also because of the incidence that the coronavirus had in the first part of it.
There are no more dates, but there may be more postponements and massively soon. This has been notified by the central office to the teams due to the imminent verdict of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the policeman who was accused in 2020 of murdering a black citizen George Floyd in Minneapolis and which furiously unleashed the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.
This Monday 19 the presentation of the conclusions is expected and the final decision is approaching. This could mean, if it is favorable to the police, that the NBA players rebel again in protest against it and stop one, two or more nights to raise awareness about this decision and its implications in the fight against racial equality.
This is how Adrian Wojnarowski, from ESPN, in decisions that are not only waiting to know how the procedure ends but also the spirit of the main members of the League.
It is not something new. The NBA already stopped within the bubble, with the Bucks-Magic of the 2020 Playoffs as the determining point before the Milwaukee’s non-appearance on the court after another similar case, Jacob Blake, another black man beaten by the police – in his case, from Kenosha (Wisconsin) – in the light of the cameras.
All the teams joined the break and lasted three days, considering not to play anymore.
The closest case in time took place last week, when a Timberwolves-Nets was postponed a few hours for the shooting, also in Minneapolis, at Daunte Wright, a black boy who was not armed at a zebra crossing.