ust past 5 pm on August 23, Jacob Blake was shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A video of the incident went viral, and overnight the city transformed into yet another nerve center for the Black Lives Matter movement. Three days later and 1,200 miles south, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, the players of the NBA launched a work stoppage in response. Black players account for 75 percent of the league, and reeling from another devastating realization that the color of their skin makes them easy target practice in America, they decided enough was enough.
Blake’s shooting was the final turning point, but the action wasn’t just about him. The decision to strike was also the result of everything that came before it: Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ferguson in 2014, and a lifetime’s worth of dead Black people killed as a consequence of how racism works in this upside-down country of ours. Fed up and with few options, players did what was in their immediate power: They chose not to step onto the court.
“We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable,” George Hill said in an interview. Hill is a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, the team that initiated the walkout. One by one, the 13 remaining NBA teams vying for the championship followed suit. It was unclear, in the ensuing hours, how long the strike would last or if the playoffs would even continue. What was clear was the exceedingly brave stand players had taken—another progressive, historic, precedent-setting move in one of the sp
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