NBA votes to resume playoffs Saturday, transform arenas into polling sites for Election Day

After three days of meetings and three days of postponed playoff games, the NBA and the Players Association agreed to a way back. The games will begin again on Saturday. The joint agreement includes a restart of the season and, in response to the players’ demands, a social justice component.

The focus of the statement that came out of the meetings was that the players’ strike will bring about a real effort at change.

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-19. If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.

The league also will work with the players and 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.

The New York City Board of Elections announced that Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks and Rangers, will serve as a polling site for the 2020 general election, both for early voting and election day voting. The site will serve more than 60,000 eligible voters, making it the largest polling site in New York City, a move that had been in the works for weeks between MSG and the Board of Elections.

While the players had debated whether entering the bubble to restart the season might take the focus off the protests some players were involved in after George Floyd’s death, the league had provided a platform for the message in words on the back of jerseys and across the court.

But after Jacob Blake’s shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday, and with protests going on without them, the players shut down the league Wednesday when the Bucks refused to take the court for Game 5 against the Magic. In short order, the entire day’s schedule of games was wiped out, with the players deciding whether to continue to play at all.

They returned to the practice court Friday and the games will resume Saturday. But what the players were focused on now was the result of the actions that came out of their strike. The NBA and its players have agreed to immediately establish a social justice coalition, with representatives from players, coaches and governors, which 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.

“We’re going to continue to play, but we’re also going to continue to make sure our voices are heard,” NBPA president Chris Paul said. “  We’re about action. That’s what our meeting was about, the real action. Guys were like, we’ve been saying this, saying that, but what’s the action?

“In our meetings, we had a big meeting with all the players, then we had a smaller meeting where two players from every team came. That was very informational. We got a chance to talk to the different governors and we told them the action that we wanted to see in place.”

“It’s not the NBA’s job to solve the world,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “It’s the NBA’s job to be a part of the world.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was dealing with a strike that spilled over from the players to NBA employees in New York, where approximately 100 staffers protested. He addressed them in a letter, promising that he has heard their voices and will work to continue forward.

Paul spoke about the emotions that had boiled over in recent days, nearly coming to tears at times as he answered questions Friday.

“It’s never about one person and it’s never about one team,” he said. “It was all about all of us together. When events happened the other day of the game, we stood in solidarity with our brothers from Milwaukee. Everything that we do is about the brotherhood, about everyone as a whole. So it was never about what this one team or this one player is going to do. What we did in there is we had deep conversations. We all had an opportunity to address a lot of things.

“The shootings that continue to happen, it creates a lot of unrest, a whole lot of unrest. For us to have a predominantly African-American league, to see our Black brothers being shot and killed on a daily basis, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. Everyone expects us to go out and play. I get it. But we needed some time. All of us.

“We needed some time to refocus and understand that we can do that. We’re human at the end of the day . . . I give our guys a lot of credit. They’ve been doing a hell of a job, a hell of a job down here performing and speaking on the different social injustice that’s going on day in and day out, while trying to be a great athlete, while trying to be a great husband, while trying to be a great father.”

 With Colin Stephenson

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.