While reports claimed that the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers were initially just the two teams who voted to cancel the 2020 playoffs, the Dallas Mavericks were also leaning strongly towards the same decision.
As relayed by Mavs forward Dwight Powell to Brad Townsend of Dallas Morning News, the Western Conference 7th-seeded team were on the brink of calling it a season following the tragic shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin earlier this week.
“A lot of guys had to really think about whether they wanted to come back, simply because this issue of police brutality and seeing lives being lost on a regular basis is very close to home for a lot of people in this league,” the 6-foot-10 slotman explained on Friday.
Yes, Dwight Powell says, a lot of players, including Mavericks, strongly considered not returning to play. He explains the process that led them to come back. pic.twitter.com/sgCTMFpY5M
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) August 28, 2020
Dwight Powell revealed that a lot of players questioned if being inside the bubble is the best way to help spark change at the moment. But after discussing the pros and cons of the situation, the team later came to the conclusion that the league is still the best platform they can use to further the cause of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Mavs, meanwhile, are currently one defeat away from elimination, trailing 3-2 in their first-round series versus the Clippers. Unfortunately for Dallas, they were without the services of Powell in the postseason, since he is still recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered back in January. The 29-year-old Canadian, however, still joined his team inside the bubble and continued his rehab in Orlando.
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