{"id":271,"date":"2026-04-12T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/?p=271"},"modified":"2026-04-12T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T21:17:07","slug":"athlete-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/2026\/04\/12\/athlete-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Athlete Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unity in Isolation – Athlete activism in the 2020 NBA Bubble<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA had to postponed their season and subsequently move all games and operations to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During the months leading up to the continuation of the regular season, protests sparked throughout the country against police brutality and racial injustice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jacob Blake, a black man who was shot multiple times in the back by a police officer, NBA players decided to take action. Black was shot near the Milwaukee area, prompting players from the Bucks to make a statement that they were tired of the brutality and injustice. The players decided to not play in their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. This started when Bucks guard, George Hill, told his teammates that he did not want to play following the death of Blake. His teammates followed and soon did athletes from other sports as the protests spread to other professional leagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media was the main communication platform that was used by athletes to get their message across to the entire nation. The NBA athletes decided not to speak during any press conferences or give any official statements. They instead choose to speak directly to the public using social media. LeBron James, who had a following on twitter over 47 million at the time of protest, tweeted his concerns for injustice and demanded change. Many other athletes with millions of followers, join with James to voice their opinions directly to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coverage on these protest reached beyond just the mainstream media here in the United States. The NBA which as plenty of international fans, made this story make global headlines around the world. Mainstream sport outlets, like ESPN, mostly reported on the effect the boycott had on the NBA playoffs. With athletes having talks about not playing for the rest of the playoffs, this caused a lot of discussion on how this will impact the NBA and their fans. For new outlets, like NPR and the Washington Post, they framed the boycotts with the other nationwide protest we had seen that Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The athletes involved had the ability to shape the media narrative of their activist act. Since they avoided press conferences and speaking with media outlets, they were able to have their message broadcasted and unfiltered directly to the public via social media. This direct and specific communication with the public allowed for a successful media narrative where their message was heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NPR Staff. (2020, August 27). Milwaukee Bucks lead strike in pro leagues to protest systemic racism<\/em>. NPR. https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice\/2020\/08\/26\/906496470\/a-dramatic-day-in-pro-sports-where-the-action-was-no-action<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro, M. (2020, October 27). Kyle Korver details Bucks’ strike in NBA bubble<\/em>. Sports Illustrated. https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/2020\/10\/27\/kyle-korver-details-bucks-boycott-nba-bubble<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaufman, M. (2020, August 27). Why Jacob Blake’s shooting sparked an unprecedented sports boycott<\/em>. TIME. https:\/\/time.com\/5883892\/boycott-nba-mlb-wnba-jacob-blake\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unity in Isolation – Athlete activism in the 2020 NBA Bubble Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA had to postponed their season and subsequently move all games and operations to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During the months… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32079,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32079"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/jordansmolskysportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}