OMG...even the Bulls were not going to play tonight. Nope, no backlash at all.
LOS ANGELES -- The Warriors players were prepared to boycott Game 5 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday had they been dissatisfied by sanctions announced by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Guard Stephen Curry said that had Silver merely announced an indefinite suspension and fine, every Warriors player planned to walk off the court as the jump ball was tossed for the opening tipoff.
"It would have been our only chance to make a statement in front of the biggest audience that we weren't going to accept anything but the maximum punishment," Curry said. "We would deal with the consequences later but we were not going to play."
NBA players association vice president Roger Mason Jr. said outside Staples Center that he spoke with Warriors center Jermaine O'Neal about a possible boycott.
"He said specifically that if they don't make that man sell his team or their recommendation isn't that, that they would be prepared to boycott the game and not play," Mason Jr. said.
Silver announced that Sterling would be banned for life from any association with the Clippers or the NBA while also that he would urge the league's Board of Governors to exercise its authority to force a sale.
"If the league didn't come down as harsh as it did, I think you would have seen not only the Golden State Warriors, but players leaguewide do something about it," Mason Jr. said.
Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who had said the previous day it was best for his team to play, acknowledged that a boycott was possible had Silver not acted.
"It was a real discussion amongst the players, and I think they were sitting, listening very closely to the tone and the words that came out of the mouth of the commissioner," Jackson said. "And so it was a real option."
With the NBA authorizing closed locker rooms for both teams before the game, citing an overwhelming amount of media requests, Warriors guard Stephen Curry released a statement before the game.
"I was pleased in the matter in which the NBA and Commissioner Silver handled this unfortunate situation -- promptly and decisively," Curry said. "There is no place for such hatred in the world or in the workplace. I think the message delivered today sends a strong but fair statement that such behavior will not be tolerated in our society, regardless of your stature. I hope we can put this behind us and move forward."
For more on the Warriors, see the Inside the Warriors blog at ibabuzz.com/warriors. Follow Diamond Leung on Twitter at twitter.com/diamond83.
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Did the bold, historic punishment NBA Commissioner Adam Silver meted out to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling avert a players’ boycott of Tuesday night playoff games?
Roger Mason Jr., the first vice-president of the National Basketball Players Association, said it did. Players were so outraged by Sterling’s racist comments that they were prepared to stage a walkout if Sterling’s punishment didn’t measure up.
“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.”
In a late-afternoon press conference in Los Angeles, Mason said he spoke to player representatives from every playoff team and there was no dissent. Games between the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors and Clippers would have been affected.
“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. “I’m happy to come here today and say that, as players, we’re very 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. We feel confident that with Adam Silver’s urging and obviously we’ve heard from a lot of the owners around the league, we think this is something that can be handled quickly.”
Over the weekend, players had been buoyed by strong comments from several of their leaders, past and present: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan (also an owner), LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. The Clippers protested before Game 4 Sunday afternoon, removing their shooting shirts with the big Clippers logo and leaving them at midcourt. Instead, they wore inside-out shirts with the smallest of logos on their warmup pants. During the game, they wore black armbands. On Monday, players in two playoff games wore black socks in a gesture of solidarity. No doubt that got the owners’ attention.
“We were prepared in the event that this decision [to ban and remove Sterling] didn’t come down to move forward that way. 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.”
