REPORT: Oklahoma City Thunder boycotting playoff game in protest against police shooting of Jacob Blake
ORLANDO, Fla. (KFOR) – The Oklahoma City Thunder will not take the court for Wednesday’s playoff game against the Houston Rockets as an act of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., according to an NBA insider.
Both the Thunder and the Rockets are boycotting by refusing to play in today’s playoff game, which was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Central Time, according to Shams Charania, an NBA insider, writer and analyst for The Atlantic and Stadium.
The Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic were also set to play on Wednesday, but both teams did not show up on the court in Orlando for tipoff.
Charania also reported that the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trailblazers will also boycott their Wednesday game. And shortly after that, he reported that the NBA is postponing all three games that were scheduled for Wednesday.
The players’ boycott is in response to the Aug. 23 shooting of 29-year-old Blake.
Blake, a black man, was shot in the back seven times at close range by police in Kenosha.
Patrick Salvi, a lawyer for Blake’s family, told NBC News that Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Benjamin Crump, another Blake family attorney, said that Blake was attempting to help deescalate a “domestic incident” when the officer shot him from behind as he was walking away.
The shooting has sparked large, raucous protests in Kenosha.
Two people were killed and one person was injured when shots were fired late Tuesday night during a protest in Kenosha.
Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Ill., has been arrested in connection with the shootings, according to NBC News.
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