Toronto Raptors Wear Support For Black Lives Matter On Their Jerseys

After a four-month hiatus, basketball is back but it looks different now than it did before the NBA shut down in March.

The league is taking increasingly surreal precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with officials and reporters wearing masks, referees using whistle covers , and the empty seats being populated by a bizarre crowd of virtual fans .

But just as noticeable is the impact of the killing of George Floyd by white police officers in Minneapolis, and the protests against anti-Black racism that his death inspired.

Before the games start, players wear Nike shirts that read Black Lives Matter, and most kneel during the national anthem . When one of the American teams play against the Toronto Raptors and theres an occasion for two national anthems to be broadcast, as during the Raptors game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, players shift the knee theyre kneeling on to indicate that racism and police brutality need to be addressed everywhere.

Lakers and Raptors stand up and kneel on their different knee for the Canadian national anthem pic.twitter.com/pqOCPyGuh0

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Lakers and Raptors stand up and kneel on their different knee for the Canadian national anthem pic.twitter.com/pqOCPyGuh0
Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) August 2, 2020

Toronto-born Oshae Brissett, one of only two Canadian players on the Raptors, has said its important to recognize police brutality isnt just an American issue.

I dont feel like its really Canadian or American because whatever is happening there is happening in Canada as well. Maybe its not televised or recorded as much, but that stuff goes on everywhere, he told reporters two weeks ago . Whatever messages are being passed around in America, I feel everyone in Canada really needs to pay attention.

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