Orlando (United States) (AFP)

After the boycott and the postponement of matches, back to the game? This is what the NBA hopes for, which this Thursday invokes a sacred union between managers and players to find a way to end the season, despite the anger resulting from the Jacob Blake affair.

The North American Basketball League has announced that the three play-offs scheduled for Thursday (Clippers-Dallas, Denver-Utah and the Toronto-Boston conference semi-final) will not be played. They are in addition to those of Wednesday (Milwaukee-Orlando, Houston-Oklahoma City and Lakers-Portland) also postponed after the boycott of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Without taking the risk of announcing rescheduling dates, the body said "hope to resume the game on Friday or Saturday".

It is now counting on a decisive advance, at the end of a meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon, "between a group of players and the leaders of the 13 teams still in contention in Orlando, as well as representatives of the players' union (NBPA), the League's board of directors and the chairman of the player relations committee, Michael Jordan, to discuss next steps, "she said.

The latter, almost always reluctant to speak out in protest against societal problems in the United States, came out of his silence at the end of May after the death of George Floyd and had donated 100 million dollars to organizations working for the racial equality.

- Jordan as a savior? -

He has not been heard in recent hours after the police fire against Jacob Blake. Will he manage to find the words to convince the players to replay, knowing that this meeting must also serve to launch action plans to accentuate the fight against racism?

According to ESPN and The Athletic, his task should not be insurmountable. They report that the players have decided to resume the play-offs at the end of a new meeting this Thursday morning, after a first which was held until late the previous night.

At its end, the Lakers and the Clippers, two of the main favorites for the league title, had voted for the end of the season, unlike the other eleven teams. Have they changed their mind? Did they line up behind the collective vote? How can the NBA convince them to replay?

So many questions illustrating how the coming hours will be decisive for the fate of an NBA season already turned upside down by the coronavirus, which forced the League to interrupt it for five months before resuming it by summoning twenty-two of its teams in the airtight bubble of Disney World.

However, it is no longer the sanitary conditions that threaten it the most now, but the burning context linked to the systemic racial injustices that plague the United States.

The ordeal of George Floyd had upset the stars of the orange ball, some like Kyrie Irving, star of the Brooklyn Nets, believing that it was not necessary to resume the championship, to precisely act against this scourge.

- "The change NOW!" -

The overwhelming majority of players, albeit with great reluctance, chose to go to Florida, and the NBA made sure to allow them to be proactive in their fight, by allowing them to drop the knee to the ground during the match. national anthem, posting "Black Lives Matter" on the floors, giving them the floor to demand justice.

But the terrible fate of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African American who was seriously injured during his arrest, caused an immeasurable further shock.

“Change doesn't happen just by talking !! It happens through action and must happen NOW! (...) It's up to the United States to make a difference. Together. That's why your vote is + More than a vote +. Black Lives Matter, "LeBron James tweeted Thursday.

The Lakers superstar created the association "More Than a Vote" two months ago, along with other sportsmen, to promote the vote of black Americans in the run-up to the presidential.

“I don't know much about the protests within the NBA. I know its ratings are very bad because I think people are fed up with the NBA. They have become a bit like a political organization and whatnot. 'is not a good thing, "said Donald Trump of the historic boycott of basketball players that has been followed in other sports, baseball, tennis, football.

© 2020 AFP