NBA players vote to continue playoff season

ESPN and The Athletic website said players attending a meeting in Orlando had agreed to resume the playoffs, although games scheduled for Thursday would be postponed.

The decision followed a day of tumult in the NBA on Wednesday, when the Bucks refused to play their first round game against the Orlando Magic in protest at the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday.

The NBA later postponed the entire slate of Wednesday fixtures following the Bucks’ no-show.

At a players meeting late on Wednesday, the powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers voted to abandon the season.

The Lakers’ LeBron James and Clippers star Kawhi Leonard both spoke in favor of ending the playoffs.

However, The Athletic reported that the Lakers and Clippers had changed course at Thursday’s meeting, with the two teams said to be “on board” with a resumption.

James had on Wednesday tweeted angrily over the shooting of Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by police as he got into a car containing his three children.

“WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT,” James wrote on Twitter.

On Thursday, James renewed calls for action against racial inequality and social injustice.

“Change doesn’t happen with just talk!! It happens with action and needs to happen NOW!” James wrote on Twitter, urging people to vote in upcoming US elections.