NBA Postpones 3 Playoff Games After Milwaukee Bucks Boycott Game Against Orlando Magic Over Blake Shooting

In its statement, the NBA said the three Game 5s of the ongoing playoff series between Milwaukee Bucks-Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets-Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers-Portland Trail Blazers would be rescheduled.

Protesters march near the Minneapolis 1st Police precinct during a demonstration against police brutality and racism on August 24, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. - It was the second day of demonstrations in Kenosha after video circulated Sunday showing the shooting of Jacob Blake -- multiple times, in the back, as he tried to get in his car, with his three children watching. (Photo by Kerem Yucel / AFP)

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has been forced to postpone all three Round 5 games of the ongoing playoffs scheduled for Wednesday after Milwaukee Bucks franchise took a firm decision to boycott Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic. In its statement, the NBA said the three Game 5s -- Bucks-Magic, Houston Rockets-Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers-Portland Trail Blazers -- would be rescheduled. "We're tired of the killings and the injustice," Bucks guard George Hill told ESPN. "Today, we stand united with the NBA Office, the National Basketball Players Association, the Milwaukee Bucks and the rest of the league condemning bigotry, racial injustice and the unwarranted use of violence by police against people of color," the Orlando Magic said in a statement Wednesday. Later, Bucks players issued a statement saying: "The past four months have shed a light on the ongoing racial injustices facing our African-American communities. Citizens around the country have used their voices and platforms to speak out against these wrongdoings. "Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we've seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protesters. Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball. Milwaukee, home to the Milwaukee Bucks team is approximately 40 miles north of Kenosha, Wis., the city in which 29-year-old African American citizen Jacob Blake was shot dead by police Sunday. The video of Jacob Blake shooting which has gone viral on social media and infuriated the African American community in the nation, showed officers grabbing Blake by his shirt while he was making a desperate attempt to get into the driver's side of a van with three of his children inside. An police cop fired seven shots at close range into Blake's back as he slumped over the steering wheel, the video showed. He remains in the hospital, and his family said he was paralyzed from the waist down. The Bucks were set to take on the Magic at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday at AdventHealth Arena inside the NBA's bubble near Orlando, Fla. Before the game, Milwaukee's players refused to leave the locker room and ultimately decided against playing.