Some Toronto Raptors players have talked about going home. Boycotting playoff games is being considered.
On the eve of the Raptors’ second-round playoff series opener against Boston, the discussion continued to be about how the teams can protest systemic racism and police brutality against Black people.
There is heartache and frustration.
Amplifying messages about racial injustice was a theme of the NBA’s restart in the bubble at Walt Disney World, but after the shooting of Jacob Blake last weekend, players are fed up.
“It just feels like we’re stuck. It feels like things are not changing. It feels like we’re not doing anything productive, basically. That’s how it feels,” said Raptors forward Pascal Siakam. “Those things hurt. I don’t care where you’re from … just seeing that and just knowing that every day it happens and it feels normal. Just seeing Black men being shot every day, that hurts, man.”
WATCH | Pascal Siakam won’t watch Blake video:
Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam shares his feelings after the release of the video showing Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, being shot multiple times in the back by police in Wisconsin. 6:43
The 26-year-old Siakam said he wouldn’t watch the video of Blake being shot multiple times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wis.
The Raptors’ all-star said watching the death of George Floyd on video — Floyd died after a white police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck on May 25 in Minneapolis — had traumatized him.
On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to boycott Game 5 of their series against the Orlando Magic, refusing to leave the locker room.
Bucks players made the decision in the wake of Blake’s shooting, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said.
The Raptors have been at the forefront of the NBA’s social justice initiatives, arriving at the league’s Walt Disney World campus earlier this summer in buses with “Black Lives Matter” written in huge block letters, and asking for justice for Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people who have been killed by police. They’ve knelt for both the American and Canadian anthems before games.
Nurse not ruling out boycott
Raptors coach Nick Nurse says the idea of a boycott “is on the table” after players from his team and the Celtics met Tuesday night. Other ideas have also been discussed, he said.
Nurse, who was recently named NBA coach of the year, said he can only listen to his players, and supports whatever decision they make.
“I’m trying to give them a forum to talk as much and often as I can. I’m trying to respect their priorities, and also give them some of my own personal thoughts,” Nurse, wearing an orange WNBA hoodie, said on his Zoom media availability.
WATCH | Nurse on possible boycott:
Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse says players from his team and the Boston Celtics have held discussions about a possible boycott. 21:46
“I’ve had couple very deep, personal discussions with these guys here this morning about playing, not playing, being in the bubble, leaving the bubble, coming to the bubble. All these things and I just give them my own personal opinion on it.”
He has heard of his players discussing going home, but doesn’t know if “that’s a team-wide thing.”
Officer shoves Ujiri
This fight is personal for the Raptors. Last week, video emerged of a law enforcement officer shoving Masai Ujiri as the Raptors president tried to get on the court following the team’s title-clinching win over the Golden State Warriors last year in Oakland, Calif.
The video was part of a countersuit, following a lawsuit by Alameda County sheriff’s deputy Alan Strickland.
“I think that we’ve got some pretty conscientious guys,” Nurse said. “We obviously have the footage and the situation with Masai, and our team just saw that recently as well, so there is some personal-ness to this.”
WATCH | Video shows Ujiri was shoved first:
New footage gives a clearer picture of what happened when Raptors president Masai Ujiri tried to get onto the court after the team won the NBA championship in June 2019 and then found himself in an altercation with a sheriff’s deputy. The video shows the deputy shoving Ujiri twice. 3:14
The day before the Raptors tip off for what is expected to be a much tougher series than their 4-0 opening-round sweep of Brooklyn, Siakam was asked if it’s difficult to focus on playing basketball amid the dark cloud of racial injustice.
“There’s really a lot of things that are way bigger than basketball going on,” he said. “You want to be able to play, you want to be able to, because at the end of the day, we know that basketball brings something to people. But at the same time, just seeing that happening every day, man, it’s tough. It hurts … yeah, it hurts.”
Celtics echo frustration
The Celtics, who swept their first-round series with Philadelphia, echoed the Raptors’ thoughts of frustration.
“We’re over here, guys are crying, guys are hurting right now because of what’s going on,” said Boston forward Grant Williams. “You never know if that’s your brother. What if that was my cousin? What if that was my family member? That’s something that weighs down on you.”
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum said the discussion to boycott started with the Raptors, but that players on other teams are also talking about it. The Celtics forward knows people will ask: What is sitting out going to do?
“Obviously if we sit out a game or the rest of the playoffs, we understand how big of an impact that will have,” he said. “Everybody’s going to have to talk about it, continue to raise awareness. We don’t want to just keep playing and forget about what’s going on in the outside world, because it’s affecting us. We’re more than just basketball players, we’re people. And we have these raw emotions and feelings.”
Before gathering in Florida for the NBA’s restart, Tatum pointed out that players were able to be on the front lines to protest, and many of them did, including Raptors’ point guard Kyle Lowry. Now there’s a feeling of being trapped in the bubble.
“We’re in this bubble and we’re isolated from everyone else and that’s frustrating,” the Celtics forward said. “I know some guys have talked about going home.”
Being a Black man in America, Tatum said, is “more important than what I do on the basketball court … When you think of a man getting shot seven times in the back with his kids in the car, that’s way more important.”
Boston coach Brad Stevens said he hasn’t heard much talk from his team on potentially boycotting games. He said the Celtics have met to allow players to speak about their feelings.
WATCH | Raptors players consider boycotting games as protest:
The Toronto Raptors say the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., leaves them agonizing over the danger Black people live with — to the point that they might not play their opening game in the next round of the NBA playoffs. 2:05
“I just simply said, each individual, we support 110 per cent,” Stevens said. “This is not easy. From the standpoint of being down here and feeling like you’re in this place that you can’t leave. . . totally understand anybody’s reaction to what’s going on outside of here and the desire to do more. Or the desire to not play. Or the desire to leave.”
On the court, Nurse said Lowry did not practise Wednesday.
The six-time all-star guard suffered an ankle sprain when he stepped on the foot of Chris Chiozza late in the first quarter of Toronto’s 150-122 series-clinching rout of Brooklyn on Sunday night. He is considered day-to-day.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
