Milwaukee Bucks: A lesson in the power of action in the NBA bubble

The Milwaukee Bucks knew they needed to do something in the NBA bubble on Wednesday, but they didn’t know what to do or what would happen when they did.

The Milwaukee Bucks felt like they needed to do something on Wednesday. The shooting of an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake, by Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer Ruston Sheskey, in front of Blake’s three children, sent shockwaves through the Bucks’ locker room, and the coming playoff game in the NBA bubble against the Orlando Magic scarcely felt like it was in the same stratosphere.

Some Bucks were prepared to play, but others led by guard George Hill couldn’t do it, and ultimately the decision was made that the team would not play their game.

It was an audacious and completely unilateral move, an unprecedented display of singular autonomy in the last half-century of American sports (the players of the NBA threatened a boycott of the 1964 All-Star game which ultimately empowered the NBPA to be the force for the good of the players that it is today). The very idea of a walkout of a playoff game seems like something players might keep in their back pocket but not actually act on.

The Milwaukee Bucks did it.

When they made their decision, they didn’t exactly know what the end-game was but there comes a point when action, any action, can be better than inaction. Even if for no other reason than to say you tried. “Paralysis by analysis” is a fairly common affliction for some of us. We don’t take that first step because we don’t know what the second step is, or the third, or even if there’s solid ground waiting for us beneath that first step alone.

In trying to figure out what will happen if we do something, we spend too much time looking and not nearly enough time leaping.

The players of the Milwaukee Bucks realized that while they didn’t know what to do, they knew people who did, and they spent two hours on the phone in the locker room Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.

Action for its own sake

As we know now, the Bucks were informed of the inactivity of the Republican-led Wisconsin state legislature, and one of the things that Kaul and Barnes counseled them to do was to demand the legislators reconvene for the first time since late April.

Through the course of the day on Wednesday, walkouts in solidarity spread throughout the NBA, the WNBA (whose players basically wrote the book on using their platform for social justice), MLB, the NHL and the NFL. There was support from athletes around the North American sports world, but the question remained: What were the players going to do with this bright spotlight and spreading support?

On Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, NBA players decided that in order for the season to continue, they were going to demand that the league’s owners (or so-called governors) were going to have to do more than post slogans and jump on NBA TV commercials. It’s important to remember that while the multimillionaire players of the NBA can do a lot of good with their money, they can’t push societal change, not even on a collective basis.

You know who can.

The NBA’s seven richest owners have a combined net worth of an estimated $175.8 billion (using this Yahoo News piece from earlier this year, and updated net worths considering billionaires have shown a tendency to flourish financially during pandemics). Not many entities can flex their collective will on such an unfathomably wealthy group, but the NBA players have that capacity to some degree, and they decided to use that might on Thursday morning.

On Friday, the NBA and NBPA made a joint statement:

In a nutshell, the owners have agreed to the following:

"…immediately establish a social justice coalition, with representatives from players, coaches and governors, that will be focused on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform."

"In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID. If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards."

"The league will work with the players and our network partners to create and include advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting greater civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity."

In addition, the Wisconsin State Legislature is going to deign to bless the citizens of their state with their presence at the capital. In the feat of all feats, they will convene in an emergency session to consider a package of bills focused on law enforcement transparency and community involvement, along with other related issues.

Between this development of a coalition, teams using their arenas (or in the case of the Detroit Pistons because they are tenants in their arena, their practice facility) as voting locations and the (hopefully relentless) utility of advertising spots as outlets to raise awareness surrounding voter access and opportunity, a great start is the worst thing you can call this.

Sometimes it pays to be cautious and ponderous in your actions. Other times, like with the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA bubble, it’s imperative to act, just act, because you must.

And let the results fall where they may.