LeBron James change of position paves way for restart of games https://t.co/oG8MrIr9K2
— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) August 27, 2020
Wednesday night LeBron James was adamant that the NBA not continue the playoffs and walked out of the players’ meeting after casting his vote. LeBron’s frustration — with the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin — was evident for everyone to see on Twitter.
Miami’s veteran sage Udonis Haslem then stood up and asked if there could be a playoffs without LeBron and Kawhi Leonard? Haslem then talked about the platform, the megaphone the players had with the bubble and games, the opportunity they had to be sure their voices were heard.
LeBron and other Lakers players met several times late into the night in the Orlando bubble and had changed their position — it was in the best interest of all the players to finish the season, so long as there was a plan going forward to push social justice action — something first reported Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports and echoed by Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times.
There’s a part of me that suspects LeBron’s was posturing to end the playoffs as part of a power move to be able to demand more from the NBA to support BLM. He knows there could be no playoffs if he and the Lakers pulled out. It will be interesting to see what is next on his agenda when it comes to supporting social justice. This was a classic LeBron power move.