The NBA will not hold any games on election day to encourage people to vote
The NBA will not hold any games on election day to encourage people to vote. The NBA announced on the 16th of August 2022, Tuesday that the association will not be holding any games on November 8. November 8 is the US Election Day. No games on that day come with a motive to encourage more people to vote in the midterms.
“The scheduling decision came out of the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections,” NBA Communications tweeted on Tuesday.
The move was first announced on “Morning Joe” on Tuesday by National Broadcasting Company reporter Shaquille Brewster.
The NBA aims to build on what it did in 2020. In 2020, NBA converted more than two dozen arenas into voting centers for the 2020 election.
“It is unusual,” James Cadogan, the Executive Director of the NBA’s Social Justice Coalition, said to Brewster. “We do not usually change the schedule for an external event, but voting on Election Day is obviously unique and incredibly important to our Democracy, and that’s part of the value proposition that we want to make sure people understand, that voting is unlike anything else.”
He went on to add that if someone pointed out the move was a ‘symbolic gesture,’ he would respond that it is a ‘good symbol’.
“If we are talking about getting out, registering, voting, making your voice heard in whatever way you think is most important. Those are symbols that I think most people can and will support,” Cadogan told Brewster.
All the 30 NBA teams will be playing the night before Election Day in a league called a “civic engagement night. Brewster informed this.
The move comes as NBA players have been taking a more active role in civic engagement in the recent past.
In the 2020 presidential election, LeBron James was seen at the forefront of the “More Than a Vote” campaign. The campaign focused on voter turnout and vote suppression among Black voters. Many other NBA players became a part of movements to encourage voting.
In the Disney World bubble in the year 2020, National Basketball Association players protested the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin by refusing to play in games. During a meeting with owners regarding restarting the season, it was said that the players encouraged the owners to get behind social causes. they did this to support an attempt to make meaningful change.