LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. — Players and coaches from the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz knelt alongside one another before the first game of the NBA restart Thursday night, an unprecedented image for the league in unprecedented times.
The coaches — New Orleans' Alvin Gentry and Utah's Quin Snyder — were next to one another, their arms locked together. Some players raised a fist as the final notes of "The Star-Spangled Banner" were played, the first of what is expected to be many silent statements calling for racial justice and equality following the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.