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Why Are NBA Games Postponed? A Sports Labor Expert Explains the Boycott

If this were a one- or two-game boycott by the players and then they returned to action, how do you think this would be remembered?

I think it would be remembered as symbolic, and from a collective bargaining position down the road, it would be a tell for the owners to realize that these guys can’t hold out. I think they’d use it down the road in their bargaining strategy.

You were once a candidate for executive director of the players’ union. If you were director of the NBPA, how would you navigate this?

[Deep sigh, laughs] Oh boy. I’d be in close consultation with the players, especially my executive committee, trying to figure out how can we, essentially, have our cake and eat it too? But because of my political bent, the guidance that I would give them would be “Now that you’ve taken a stand, you’ve got to take it all the way.” And I’d also be on the phone with the other major league unions and try to enlist their support and try to persuade them to take action as well in the same way. Because with that kind of unity, this thing could be a lot shorter. If the NBA players are out on an island doing it by themselves, I’m not sure that you would get the expedience you would like to see affecting change, whether it’s legislation, whether it’s individual actions in places like Louisville, Kenosha, and places where you need to have indictments.

[Elmore pauses to watch the beginning of Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul’s televised press conference.]

Of course, everybody was blaming the victim: “He’s a criminal, he should never have been out.” This is crazy, man, because it’s irrelevant. It’s immaterial what his record was. I’ve tried these cases. I’ve investigated similar cases when I was an assistant DA 34 years ago.

How does that feel, to see the criminal justice system up close so long ago and realize what you’re essentially dealing with is an endless cycle?

It’s frustrating as hell. This is the type of stuff you’re up against when you’re trying these cases. When cops are witnesses, juries tend not to believe them, particularly when the defendant’s white. But when they become the defendants? Oh my goodness, they could lie through their teeth and juries will believe them because they weigh the complainant, who’s usually somebody who’s had a run-in with law enforcement before, and then they say, “Well, you know, even though the actions were unjustifiable, I don’t want to ruin this cop’s life because of this person.” It’s crazy.

I was the assistant district attorney in the law enforcement investigations bureau under Elizabeth Holtzman, who was the D.A. in Brooklyn at the time. I’d investigate crime, other than corruption—police brutality. It was, unfortunately, the way it continues to be. The police are so often given the benefit of the doubt, which I can understand, but not to the point where you ignore evidence of guilt.

It’s like evidence doesn’t exist. Right there in front of you, Jacob Blake had no weapon at the time he got into his car. The officer was holding on to his T-shirt, so he could’ve pulled him away. If the knife was on the floor board, he could’ve just pulled him out of the car. Instead he pulls him and shoots him. And he admitted that he had a knife! He told them, “I’ve got a knife!” It’s not like he was trying to hide anything.

The Bucks players called elected officials in Wisconsin from the locker room yesterday to talk about the Jacob Blake case. What’s next in all of this? Where do we go from here?

Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t think the players know what’s next. But all I can predict is that if this is a one-off, then it’ll be recognized as symbolic. Maybe a threat down the road, but a threat that people believe they won’t follow through on. And then nothing will change.

However, should they sustain this and other teams make calls to local, state, and federal government, they get their owners involved. Then you have a snowball rolling down a hill, and I think eventually you will institute some type of change. But I’m just holding my breath to see what happens. I’ll wait to exhale when good things happen. True activism doesn’t come without sacrifice.

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