On a recent visit to his alma mater Creighton University, Kyle Korver answered questions about the night the Bucks boycotted Game 5 against the Magic.
On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic made history. The playoff game was boycotted by the two teams, in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting. This started a boycott of several professional sports leagues around the United States. The�NBA,�MLB,�NHL, and the MLS all postponed games on the day and even on the following days. The NBA eventually resumed the season on the 29th. Although,�the Lakers and the Clippers�voted to cancel the season then and there.
Kyle Korver’s Experience During the Boycott
Korver is an important veteran on the Bucks. Regarded as one of the best three-point shooters of all time, he has often been a�leader and vocal presence�in the locker room. This is especially the case at the tail end of his career.
Korver first details how the players were all not feeling 100% in the locker room. Emotions then tumbled over by the reaction of assistant coach Darvin Ham.
Ham screamed that “there are kids out there on the street,” before breaking something in the locker room. Korver describes that as the moment when the emotion hit.
“I just sat there in my chair, with tears running down my face.”
Kyle Korver
Next, George Hill and Sterling Brown informed the team that they won’t be playing. This case was personal for Brown, especially as he was a�police brutality victim back in 2018. Eventually, the whole team followed Brown and Hill and decided to sit the game out.
The team decided to use the time to try and create some dialogue themselves. They attempted to contact the state legislature, although that ended up failing. Finally, they were able to call Jacob Blake’s parents, which is where Korver knew that they “were doing the right thing.”
“At that moment, when we were sitting there listening to his parents, we just sat around the phone and cried.”
Kyle Korver
The boycott of August 26, 2020, will remain one of the most monumental off-court moments in American sports history.
