NBA players were prepared to boycott Tuesday night's playoff games if NBA commissioner Adam Silver did not ban Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and force him to sell his team, National Basketball Players Association first vice president Roger Mason Jr. said.
"I heard from our players and all of our players felt like boycotting the games tonight," Mason said. "We're talking about all NBA players. We're talking about the playoff games tonight."
Mason said he spoke to player representatives from every team and they were on board with the decision to boycott Tuesday's games if they weren't satisfied with the commissioner's decision. The decision would have affected Tuesday's Game 5s between the Clippers and Golden State Warriors, the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, and the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder.
On Tuesday, Sterling was banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation. Silver also said he will try to force Sterling to sell the team. The owners have the authority, subject to three-quarters vote, to remove Sterling as an owner.
"I reached out to other players around the league and made it clear the players were ready to boycott the games if this type of action was not something that Adam Silver felt was necessary," Mason said. "We're happy with the decision but we're not content yet. We want immediate action. We want a timetable from the owners as far as when this vote is going to happen."
Mason said the players did not want to boycott games until they heard from the league but were prepared to take that drastic step if Sterling's punishment did not meet their demands.
"We didn't hear from the league yet. We didn't want to jump to conclusions," Mason said. "But we were prepared in the event that this decision didn't come down to move forward that w
ay. We didn't think this was just a Clippers issue so we didn't want to put the pressure on Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and that team, we wanted to band behind our brothers to do the right thing and that would have been to communicate with the other teams in our league and let them know what we were going to do."
NBPA vice president Roger Mason Jr., says players were ready to boycott if Donald Sterling wasn't banned - ESPN
"I heard from our players and all of our players felt like boycotting the games tonight," Mason said. "We're talking about all NBA players. We're talking about the playoff games tonight."
Mason said he spoke to player representatives from every team and they were on board with the decision to boycott Tuesday's games if they weren't satisfied with the commissioner's decision. The decision would have affected Tuesday's Game 5s between the Clippers and Golden State Warriors, the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, and the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder.
On Tuesday, Sterling was banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation. Silver also said he will try to force Sterling to sell the team. The owners have the authority, subject to three-quarters vote, to remove Sterling as an owner.
"I reached out to other players around the league and made it clear the players were ready to boycott the games if this type of action was not something that Adam Silver felt was necessary," Mason said. "We're happy with the decision but we're not content yet. We want immediate action. We want a timetable from the owners as far as when this vote is going to happen."
Mason said the players did not want to boycott games until they heard from the league but were prepared to take that drastic step if Sterling's punishment did not meet their demands.
"We didn't hear from the league yet. We didn't want to jump to conclusions," Mason said. "But we were prepared in the event that this decision didn't come down to move forward that w
ay. We didn't think this was just a Clippers issue so we didn't want to put the pressure on Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and that team, we wanted to band behind our brothers to do the right thing and that would have been to communicate with the other teams in our league and let them know what we were going to do."
NBPA vice president Roger Mason Jr., says players were ready to boycott if Donald Sterling wasn't banned - ESPN
