The Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA have decided not to participate in the playoff games after Jacob Blake was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis.
President Trump commented on five teams refusing to perform in the playoff games in protest of police brutality.
“They’ve become like a political organization, and that’s not a good thing,” Trump said. “I don’t think that’s a good thing for sports or for the country.”
Trump told reporters that he was unfamiliar with the players who had chosen not to play, “I don’t know much about the NBA. I know their ratings are bad because I think people are tired of the NBA. I know their ratings have been bad. That’s unfortunate.”
First to announce their game postponement were the Milwaukee Bucks. Senior vice president to the team tweeted “The stand taken today be the players and [the organization] shows that we’re fed up. Enough is enough. Change needs to happen. I’m incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players ready to assist and bring about real change.”
Basketball superstar Lebron James voiced his outrage on Twitter after the announcement of the postponing, saying, “F*CK THIS MAN!!!! WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT.”
The GOP does not agree with the NBA player’s decision.
The chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence called the protest “absurd and silly” and said, “Look, I do think that peaceful protest has a place and it has importance. But I do think that what we need to do right now is make sure that we take the anger that people have and we have to move from slogans to constructive solutions.”
NBA Executive Vice President Mike Bass said in a statement, “We are hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday.”
