NBA Gearing Up to Paint 'Black Lives Matter' on courts?

The National Basketball Association is gearing up to get the courts painted with “Black Lives matter.” This painting will be done on all the three sidelines of the courts at Walt Disney World, where the NBA season 2020 is slated to take place in July. This has come as an act of extending support to fighting racial discrimination and social inequality.

Per reports, the league may also ask players to change the last name on the back of their jerseys to something that talks about social justice. The league along with the players have all been pretty much vocal about these issues after the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Players’ take on Resuming the Season & fighting the cause.

Many players have been opposing the idea of resuming the season, putting across the view that it may deviate their focus from speaking against systemic racism. Kyrie Irving was one of the flag-bearers of this thought about the restart NBA season 2020 causing a distraction to their fight against racism and social injustice. Most players agreed that it is more important for them to focus on speaking in favor of those who are fighting racism and social injustice at this point in time.

NBPA president Chris Paul said “We’re just trying to continue to throw light on the different social justice issues that guys around our league continue to talk about day in and day out. People are saying that social justice will be off everybody’s mind in Orlando. With these jerseys, it doesn’t go away.”

NBA Return-to-play.

The NBA will be returning-to-play at Disney World near Orlando, Florida on July 30, after it came to an abrupt halt due to the coronavirus outbreak. While some players have been continually speaking out against resuming the play, considering it as a distraction from the fight against systemic racism, other players including LeBron said that resuming the game might create even a greater impact on the moment.

Painting the court with “Black Lives Matter” and having printed statements supporting the fight against racism might look trivial moves, but it would encourage the moment with a message that these players want to speak against this menace surrounding the world for years.

The WNBA may make a similar move.

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) may also consider going with such a move after the NBA made this announcement. WNBA seasons are going to be played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and is also pondering over getting the courts painted with “Black Lives Matter” and replacing the last name of players printed at the back of players’ jerseys with some statement depicting voice against racism.

In addition, many players have also suggested wearing warm-up shirts with “Say Her Name” printed over them specifying the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Taylor, who was an Emergency medical technician, was shot eight times by the police while they banged on to her apartment. This incident took place in the middle of the night as a part of a drug investigation, and there were no drugs found in the apartment. With the move, the WNBA players intend to speak for Taylor. In fact, many players have also opted-out of the season, citing the fight for social justice as the reason.

While NBA & WNBA players are gearing up for return-to-play at their respective grounds, they do not want to stop their voices speaking against social injustice from reaching where it must. Players have become more aware of these issues, and they are coming up to support people who are dedicatedly working to fight social injustice, and racial discrimination, like never before.