Seems unprecedented: in the midst of the NBA playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks boycott their game 5 matchup against the Orlando Magic, in protest of the shooting of an unarmed black man by the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, prompting the NBA to cancel all games for the day
To my friends, I first made the obvious, low-hanging fruit joke about how the Bucks did the Magic a favor and kept them alive for one more day, seeing as how they were up 3-1 in the best of seven and were probably going to close out the series tonight, but the reality is, I’m actually pretty cool with what the Bucks did.
Far too often, we see celebrities and professional athletes talk a big game about the reach they have and they say a lot of meaningful things on Twitter about how change is needed, black lives mattering, and all sorts of political statements. But after they hit send, they put their phones down, and then go back to making movies, music, or putting on jerseys and playing sports, for millions and millions of dollars that they make for themselves, and billions and billions of dollars for the people they work for. And when the day is over, nothing happens, and this perpetual cycle of humanity failing continues on until the next tragic events causes everything to start all over again.
As long as life goes on, there’s little reason for anyone to stop what they’re doing and try and make any changes, of any size or magnitude. But when the machine is abruptly killed when it is expecting to be churning at its maximum capacity, people will undoubtedly have to stop and look and wonder what the fuck is going on; and that’s precisely what the Milwaukee Bucks did, when they actually did boycott a pivotal and meaningful nationally televised basketball game. Make no mistake, the rest of the NBA’s games of the day were cancelled in response and attempt to show solidarity, but this doesn’t happen if one team doesn’t make the first move, and that’s undoubtedly the Bucks.
I also love that it was the Bucks that did it, and it’s obvious why the team from Wisconsin did it, but I just think back to when the Bucks were the bottom dwellers of the NBA and that’s all I can ever think of the Milwaukee Bucks, despite the fact that nowadays, they’ve got a ten-foot tall all-star and are basically the best team in the entire league.
It’s easy to brush off the idea of a few basketball games not happening, actually going to succeed in getting any results, but look at the domino effect that happens: TNT won’t get their ratings, advertisers won’t get their views, numerous brands and companies are drawn into the crosshairs of the all-judging, all-disagreeing perspective vortex of the internet, and in the end, there are going to be millions of dollars lost immediately or in the aggregate, as the result of three basketball games* not being played.
*and one baseball game, as the also-in-Wisconsin Milwaukee Brewers, postponed their game with the Cincinnati Reds in a reactive move of solidarity with the Bucks
And when you affect the wallets of the rich white men who inevitably run all these companies, you will get their attention, and things might actually happen. I mean, just look at the fucking Washington Redskins, who for decades, gleefully refused and denied to change their team’s name, infuriating Native Americans across the country, but as soon as people decided to stop going at them, and instead went after FedEx, Nike, Pepsi and their other big-money sponsors, change was almost immediate.
Needless to say, the jury is still out on what’s going to happen on account of this, but there’s no denying the fact that the Bucks’ actions are guaranteed to have financial ramifications for many, many corporate entities out there, and financial ramifications have proven time and time again to be one of the few things that actually makes shit happen, regardless of what it is.
So, I have to tip my cap and applaud the Milwaukee Bucks for actually doing something, aside from the creating chaos of literally hijacking the entire NBA playoffs. Regardless of what happens, at least it will be known that an entire professional basketball team came together and took a stand, and took a pretty hefty swings at the money that runs the show, because as the recent Redskins example shows, attacking the money is the most effective way to get results.
Honestly, I wish the Bucks did it a little better, and came out, did their warm ups, went through the whole song and dance of making it look like a game was going to occur, and as soon as the ref threw the tip off into the air, every single member of the team just jogs off the floor and heads into the locker room. Let every single person in the bubble, every commentator, and all the viewers at home just be completely blindsided and dumbfounded by what the fuck just happened. Give TNT no time to react and possibly queue up some backup programming, and put the commentary team in a pickle of trying to figure out what to talk about until the production team can give them some direction.
I digress though. For a bunch of dimwitted basketball players, this was good enough, and the effort should be commended. I look forward to seeing what happens in the aftermath of all this, or if more games get boycotted as a result. Either way, this is how a protest is done, and undoubtedly, as stated, attacking the money is the way to get results.
