“Stay tuned.”

The NBA’s social justice plans sound interesting

BY HENRY ABBOTT

The Undefeated’s Marc Spears asked if the NBA had plans like premiership soccer to print up uniforms saying “Black Lives Matter.” Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, implied that she had secrets she didn’t want to reveal. 

Then she said “stay tuned.”

The call featured Roberts, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, NBPA president Chris Paul, and vice president Andre Iguodala. It was about reopening a league. The league closed in March because of the coronavirus, but it almost didn’t reopen because of the police killing of George Floyd, and the ensuing Black Lives Matters movement. Many players of conscience were unsure about abandoning this moment and this cause, to go back to work in a bubble. Instead the players and the league agreed to enact a social justice program together.

What exactly that will be was murky before the conference call, and almost as murky after. A press release says “the goal of t…