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The Toronto Raptors discussed the possibility of boycotting the first game of their second-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, ESPN reported.
“We knew coming here or not coming here was not going to stop anything, but I think ultimately playing or not playing puts pressure on somebody,” Fred VanVleet said.
“So, for example, this happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin, if I'm correct? Would it be nice if, in a perfect world, we all say we're not playing, and the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks -- that's going to trickle down. If he steps up to the plate and puts pressure on the district attorney's office, and state's attorney, and governors, and politicians there to make real change and get some justice," he said.
“I know it's not that simple. But, at the end of the day, if we're gonna sit here and talk about making change, then at some point we're gonna have to put our nuts on the line and actually put something up to lose, rather than just money or visibility. I'm just over the media aspect of it. It's sensationalized, we talk about it every day, that's all we see, but it just feels like a big pacifier to me.”
FRUSTRATED NBA PLAYERS WONDER AGAIN WHETHER THEY SHOULD PLAY
VanVleet added that he wouldn’t go into specifics when talking about the team meeting.
Celtics forward Marcus Smart said his teammates didn’t talk boycotting but said there was something bigger they wanted to do other than kneel or wear T-shirts.
“We tried to be peaceful, kneeling, we tried to protest,” Smart said. “And for us, we tried to come out here and get together and play this game and try to get our voice across. But it's not working, so obviously something has to be done.
"Right now, our focus shouldn't really be on basketball. I understand it's the playoffs and everything like that, but we still have a bigger underlying issue that's going on, and the things that we've tried haven't been working. So we definitely need to take a different approach, and we definitely need to try new things out to get this thing working the way that we know it should and get our voices heard even more.”
ESPN reported Wednesday that the two teams talked at their hotel about the possibility of boycotting the first game of their series.
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The series between the two teams begins Thursday.
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