The Players Field

Tim McManus
ESPN Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA -- How in the world did Carson Wentz, the newly anointed franchise quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016, wind up trapped inside a gas station bathroom, anyway?

Wentz began cracking up when that memory was raised before practice last week -- far enough back in time now that it's just a quaint story about a young man from North Dakota finding his way in a strange, foreign land ... of New Jersey.

Four years ago in June, a little more than a month after the Eagles drafted Wentz No. 2 overall, he was driving from who knows where back to his new home just over the bridge from Philadelphia when nature called. Wentz chose the wrong place to answer, as the uninitiated do.

"Not to hate on any New Jersey gas stations, but the bathrooms aren't the cleanest places and it was one of those outdoor ones where you get the key and all that fun stuff," Wentz told ESPN. "So I pee, I do everything, and the lock is like stuck. I literally can't get out of this bathroom. And I don't have my phone; I left it in my truck. So there I am looking around, like, What can I grab? The toilet paper holder? Can I try and jimmy something open? Nothing works. So the next thing you know, I'm just pounding on the door, screaming, yelling for someone to come help me.

"I don't remember the specifics of how they got it open, but there was a pair of garden shears [involved], and one of the other guys kicked the thing in," Wentz added. "A good 'welcome to New Jersey' moment, I guess."

Little did he know about the "welcome to the NFL" moments that would follow.

Those include:

From being abruptly named the starter eight days before the Eagles' opener his rookie season while he was lying in a cornfield hunting geese ...

To the high of the near-MVP and Super Bowl campaign the following season in 2017 ...

To the lows of the back-to-back season-ending injuries ...

To the impossible dynamics created when his backup, Nick Foles, delivered the city its first Lombardi trophy ...

To being knocked out of his first playoff game with a concussion last January ...

To the drafting of quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round in April.

There has been a lot of drama packed into Wentz's first four years as a pro, all unfolding in one of the country's most intense media markets.

Off the field has been equally dizzying for Wentz. He and his wife, Maddie, welcomed their first child, a baby girl, in late April. And he has been busy expanding his AO1 Foundation along with his brother, Zach, with the operation extending from the Philadelphia area to North Dakota to Haiti, where through the foundation they have built a sports complex.

After galvanizing a group of young, unheralded skill-position players for a late-season playoff push in 2019, and following the departure of safety Malcolm Jenkins (who is now with the New Orleans Saints) this offseason, Wentz has grown into the team's primary leader, finally armed with enough experience and clout to stand in the middle of the circle and guide the squad with authority. He does so with broadened shoulders after adding 13 pounds of muscle to his frame this offseason, the benefits of being injury-free and able to hit the weights hard. Not to mention he's in Year 2 of a four-year contract extension that included $109.9 million guaranteed.

Asked if he feels like he has aged 50 years over his four seasons in Philadelphia given all that has been packed in, Wentz, 27, said, "I'm not sure how to answer that, but yes. No doubt."

Any naiveté he carried with him from North Dakota to New Jersey has been blasted out of him like a foot through a gas station door. The diversity of the city he has immersed himself in, and the testimonies of so many of his teammates who are hurting, has awakened him to the pain being felt in the Black community, compelling him to use his voice to raise awareness and champion change -- actions that have resonated strongly in the Eagles' locker room.

"He's embraced it, for sure, because you can definitely see that he's speaking up a lot more," Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said. "You can tell that he's more confident. ... You know who's the head of the team."

His ascendance comes just in time for what could be the most challenging season in league history, played during the coronavirus pandemic and amid social unrest. All that past adversity might come in handy for Wentz in Year 5.

Pushing past Foles
Quarterback Josh McCown was in the Eagles' locker room last season and saw how tricky the waters were that Wentz had to navigate.

There were strong, established leaders all around him, including center Jason Kelce, tackle Jason Peters, Graham and, above all, Jenkins, who served as the team's voice and compass. Wentz, 26 years old at the time, had to figure out how and when to assert himself in a group with so many accomplished powers. That was true when it came to his wide receivers as well, with Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson having 20 years of NFL experience and four Pro Bowls between them.

"Sometimes when you're dealing with veterans, as a young player it's just, you know, 'Do they want me to say something to them? Or would they feel insulted? Sometimes you're sorting through those things," McCown said.

Adding to the complexity of Wentz's rise was Foles' success in his stead, both in 2017 when he finished the Super Bowl run and the following season, when he helped the Eagles into the divisional round of the playoffs. That team achievement emboldened some individuals to speak out in less rosy times, anonymously pointing fingers, including at Wentz.

"It's just been an interesting start to hopefully a really cool career, where there's been a lot of really cool moments, but for lack of a better term, just awkward. I mean, it just is," McCown said of Wentz's situation. "To take your team to the playoffs and have somebody else win the Super Bowl, it ain't that he's not happy, but it's just an awkward moment where you're like, I wish that could have been me, but it wasn't me, but I'm still happy for my team. ... [My advice] was always just be yourself and be truthful. It's OK to acknowledge that it felt weird. I don't know that I would want him to be my quarterback if he didn't feel weird."

All of that factored into the "dynamics at work," McCown said, "where you're just going, 'OK, what's my voice as a leader for this team?'"

Wentz found that voice over the last four games of the 2019 regular season. The skill positions decimated by injuries, Wentz led the Eagles to four consecutive wins and a playoff berth while surrounded by five players who were called up from the practice squad, including running back Boston Scott, receivers Greg Ward, Deontay Burnett and Rob Davis, and tight end Josh Perkins. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, 48% of the Eagles' receptions during that four-game win streak came from players who were not on the active roster at the start of the 2019 season.

Toward the beginning of that win streak, Wentz took the young players out to dinner to forge a bond and spent one-on-one time with each of them, pumping in confidence while figuring out how to best connect on an individual level. The circumstances allowed Wentz the freedom to be the leader he wanted to be on his own terms.

"As a franchise quarterback, you have the ability to activate others by your words and by your belief in them. And I think he managed that tool very well down the stretch," McCown said. "There were a lot of those little moments, and those were the ones that made me smile, whether it was in practice or whether it was in a film session of, 'Hey man, I trust in you to win.' When a guy hears that, it just does something to that guy's confidence."

Wentz called that stretch probably the most memorable of his career to date, and has said he learned more about himself as a leader in those four games than at any point over the prior three-plus seasons.

"Looking back in my career, I think it'll be a big moment that really, hopefully, set me up for a long time and shaped the future," Wentz said.

Stepping out of his comfort zone
Wentz "definitely" felt like he was out on a ledge when he hit "send" on his social media post in late May. Three days after the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis Police custody, he called out "institutional racism" in the country, saying it "breaks my heart and needs to stop." He was one of the first prominent white athletes to speak out and it stunned some people in the building given his publicly neutral stance on other polarizing topics in the past.

But conversations during a candid Eagles team meeting after Floyd's death opened Wentz's eyes to issues he had previously not seen clearly, and he realized the mistreatment going on ran directly counter to his Christian beliefs.

"It's been a lot of learning and a lot of conviction on the heart, honestly. Growing up in North Dakota ... it's something that's kind of new and something that I've chosen to kind of just overlook, because when I went to high school, I think I had just a couple Black classmates and it's something that was so foreign to me. And so this offseason, I took a real look into showing empathy and understanding what has it been like to be a Black man in this world, in this country, not just in today's world but going back 400 years to now and how we got to this point," Wentz said.

Wentz joined the team's social justice committee, put his signature on the letter to Congress supporting a bill to end qualified immunity for police officers and has made assurances he is committed to the cause for the long haul.

"He's really come in and really embraced this football team, and really even embraced this opportunity with the social injustice, with bridging the gap between himself and his Black teammates," Eagles coach Doug Pederson said.

"It shows you that we have a true leader back there with [No.] 11," Eagles safety Will Parks added. "It's not too many times when you have a quarterback, a guy still young in the league like myself, to express his feelings and want to help. That's awesome."

'I don't know that's really a second thought'
"Thy Kingdom Crumb" is one arm of Wentz's AO1 Foundation designed to uplift communities through serving food. In non-pandemic times, that was by way of a food truck, which would go out to different neighborhoods in the greater Philadelphia area and distribute free meals.

The model has transitioned to handing out grocery boxes with basic necessities during the early phase of the pandemic when things as commonplace as toilet paper were difficult to come by. The foundation has since moved to giving out 150 to 200 family-size box meals a week, using a church lot for safe curbside pickup.

Zach Wentz, Carson's older brother and a near spitting image, jokes that patrons have accused him of lying when he insists through his mask that he's not Carson, an especially hard sell since Carson is spotted handing out food from time to time when his schedule allows.

"It shows a lot about his character," Zach said, "and just being able to step out of his comfort zone a little bit and then really serve the people in the community tangibly and really get his hands dirty and get in there and work."

Zach acknowledged it was a bit daunting when he gave up his job as a baseball coach in North Dakota and moved with his wife to Philadelphia to work with and be a support system for Carson. But it has opened the whole family to a bigger world, and Zach has helped grow the foundation, which powered the opening of a sports facility in Haiti in 2019 that serves 15,000 children per year and created outdoor programs for children with physical challenges and life-threatening illnesses.

He is naturally overprotective when he sees his little brother endure criticism or face challenges that come with being a franchise quarterback in a big city, but Zach has learned to relinquish some of that control. And he has seen growth from Carson, too.

"He's, always to me, been the younger brother, the little brother, but I think he's just growing into who he is as a man, as a father and as a leader, willing to have challenging conversations with with people, willing to lead by example and obviously verbally as well," Zach said. "And just really growing into what an NFL quarterback is. ... Just kind of seeing him grow into that and be comfortable in his skin and who he is has been really, really fun to watch."


If there was an issue early on between Wentz and some of his teammates, it was that they had trouble connecting, both because of their different backgrounds and because Wentz was hesitant at times to open up and be vulnerable. That has eased over time.

So, too, has any insecurity about his place in the organization. Wentz said he "probably" would have reacted differently to the selection of Hurts in the second round if it had happened earlier in his career, but that his broader viewpoint earned over time has allowed him to think more about how he can help Hurts and the team and "see it through a different lens."

"I don't think anybody at any position when they pick a second-rounder is immune to going, 'That's interesting,' or whatever," said McCown, who is expected to be signed to the Eagles' practice squad. "But at the same time, I think [Wentz] understands the plane that he's on and where he's heading. So I don't know that's really a second thought. He's got [young players] he needs to help to get ready, and I think that's where his focus is."

A concussion suffered as a result of a questionable hit from Jadeveon Clowney in a wild-card loss to the Seattle Seahawks in January prevented Wentz from finishing his first career playoff game, his season ended by injury for a third consecutive year. The demand for postseason success will only grow -- the ticking of the clock amplified by the presence of Hurts.

Wentz sets off on another climb Sunday at Washington (1 p.m. ET, Fox), starting from the same base but with a little different perspective.

"A lot of people, this game can kind of change them and money or fame or whatever. But my values, my ideals, my faith has always been at the forefront and that hasn't changed them," he said. "By no means am I a perfect human being -- that's not what I'm saying. But just my authenticity of who I am -- the kid from North Dakota with the same faith and values -- hasn't changed, just the circumstances look different. And I think I've just matured a lot and grown a lot.

"By no means have I arrived on any level with that, but it's something that I continue to look forward to growing and becoming a better husband, a better father, a better teammate and a better leader every single day."

Sep 4, 2020
Sid Lowe
Spain writer
Lionel Messi was late. He was late to formally tell Barcelona he was leaving, which is why in the end he couldn't -- held to the June 10 deadline he'd missed. And now he was late to tell everybody he was staying. Ten days after he had sent a burofax to announce he was walking out, he announced that he was walking back in again. The statement was coming at five o'clock, they said, but at five past there was no sign, however many times you hit refresh. At 10-past, there was still nothing. Twenty past, half past, 20- to, 10-to. Come on, will you?
It wasn't until six that, at last, it was confirmed, an explanatory interview, recorded earlier in the day with Ruben Uria of Goal, was finally released and the silence broken: Messi was not leaving the Camp Nou. He'd decided to stay. Only he hadn't decided anything of the sort; he'd had it decided for him and ultimately admitted defeat. The fact that he is still a Barcelona player will be described as a U-turn, but it is not. He changed his mind, they will say, but he didn't. He is still there because he is stuck, no other reason. He will line up for Barcelona this season because they wouldn't let him leave.

For the team to respond, Messi must. You have to convince him and integrate him, make it work with him and for him. And if you can't, or won't, you have to manage that. You need to seek complicity or authority, some way to motivate him. Do you build this into a "Last Dance," similar to the unprecedented title run of the NBA's Chicago Bulls? A one-year farewell, finishing at the top?

Will Messi buy into that? And does it work when the coach has changed and Luis Suarez is on the verge of an exit? Can Messi channel Michael Jordan with no versions of Scottie Pippen or Phil Jackson at his side?

Plenty of footballers are forced into positions and clubs they don't want to be. Player power is quite often a myth; destiny is not always at their feet. On this occasion, even the most powerful player of all, the one they accused of controlling the club, had to swallow. That's not so unusual; what is, is saying so. Instead, players raise a scarf, hold up a shirt, shake a hand and smile as if they mean it. Forced to make the best of it, most footballers won't admit that it's not what they wanted. But Messi is not most players, not now.

When something like this happens, everyone pretends everything is OK; they draw a line under it and move on. Messi didn't. This wasn't Homer Simpson crawling back and begging for his old job having walked out. It wasn't George Costanza pretending he never quit, either. Let's never talk about this again. Actually, no, let's. And so Messi talked. Boy, did he talk. If you still haven't seen his interview with Ruben Uría, go and do it now. It is extraordinary, and that conditions what comes next.

As if it wasn't hard enough to fix this, to find a way back, it is harder now. Just staying certainly doesn't do it. There is a long way to go still, healing to be done, if that's even possible. Barcelona did not win him over, they did not convince him: they obliged him.

This is no victory, not yet. Not when Messi is so direct, so blunt, as to repeatedly insist that he is only here to avoid ending up in court against the club. Not when he admits that he wanted -- wants -- to go, that he is unhappy, that he feels he has been lied to by the club, and that he doesn't believe in the project. What project? "For a long time now, there has been no project or anything; they're performing a balancing act, plugging holes as they go along," Messi said, and he doesn't see that changing any time soon.

He has been burnt too often, his faith gone. This process has only made it worse, leaving bitterness and resentment. How do you go back after that? How do your return to the pitch and become the player you were? All the more so if, deep down, you might not feel like you're the player you were any more: and Messi is older now, and aware of that. He talked about seeing out his final years happily. And that didn't mean at Barcelona.

But here he is, so what do you do now? How do you handle this? What do you say when Messi turns up at San Joan Despí? What does Messi say? How does he act? No one was really ready for him to go. But nor, having reached this point, were they really ready for him to stay.

It wasn't that Messi has said that he was going, it was that he had gone. Or acted as if he had. There was a coherence to his refusal to train: Why would he if he was out already? ESPN's Fernando Palomo put it nicely: He hasn't so much stayed as gone and come back. Again, not because he wanted to but because he was dragged back, against his will.

"I'm going to continue at Barça and my attitude won't change even if I wanted to go. I always want to win, I'm competitive and I don't like losing anything. I always want the best for the club, the dressing room and myself. I will give everything," Messi insisted, and he is so competitive, so driven, and so talented that he probably will.

Maybe the football will be his refuge, a place to find himself. Nowhere better than the pitch, perhaps. Maybe together the coaching staff and squad can build a team that isolates him from the club and its context, the crisis around him, the people at whom he can hardly bear to look. Perhaps they can forge unity against the front office somehow.

It's possible that anger can drive him, the determination to make a point, to not let the bastards win. "It hurts," he said, "that people doubted my love for this club." Perhaps that can project him, driving him on.

Maybe, but something has shifted over the past 10 days -- and beyond. He had broken away, only to find those chains still holding him back. Now, he has to play another season, at least, in Spain -- one he wasn't anticipating, still less one he embraced. He talked about how the moment had come, about how going was a means of rediscovering "enthusiasm," seeking "happiness." He "needed" it, he said. He has been denied it.

Ronald Koeman, the new Barcelona manager, said that he only wanted players who want to be there. He now knows, and so does everyone else, that doesn't include Messi.

Nor did Messi exactly deliver a ringing endorsement of the new regime, any evidence that he believed things can be different now. He has seen things decline too fast, too far over the past five years, and come to believe that the way back is long. "Honestly, I don't know what will happen now," he said. "There's a new coach and a new idea. That's good, but then you have to see how the team responds and if that's enough to compete or not."

This is not the same Messi as it was, and something had already broken inside him. Emotionally, he can't be the same. Still less now that those emotions have been publicly exposed, after everything that has happened.

His authority is different now, too, the way others look at him. Can he lead and will they follow as they once did? Some teammates had accepted his departure was coming; none of them said anything about it, opting for silence instead. Some welcomed a shift in culture, a new structure, different hierarchies. They have watched this whole sorry saga play out and the damage it has done. Here's a question, for example: Can he still be captain now?

Another, even more basic question asks: Where does he play? Or, maybe even more simply: Does he play? Well, of course, he does, how can he not now after the fight they put up to keep him? But is it truly what they wanted? Is it what Koeman was working toward? Might he not have preferred a clean start, a resetting and reduction of expectations, the opportunity to go entirely his own way.

Messi said that his departure would be good for everyone; it's not impossible that Koeman agreed with that. He knows that his room for manoeuvre might be narrower now, and yet it is he now who will have to reintegrate Messi.

The manager will have different ideas about Messi's role and responsibility than those who came before him, and not just in purely footballing terms. If only because he has different players around him now -- Luis Suarez, Messi's best friend and strike partner over five years, is likely to depart for Juventus -- because the context is different. Because the ideas the new manager was developing, while embryonic, didn't necessarily include him. Take Antoine Griezmann, one obvious example: a few days ago, his former agent insisted the French striker had been ready to depart but Koeman told him he would have a lead role now. Ten days on, is that still the case?

On the day Messi said he was staying, he gave the most convincing case yet for why he should have gone. Already had, in fact. He had emotionally checked out; checking back in may not be so easy. He returns unwillingly, angry, feeling like he was let down and lied to, which is rarely a good way of getting a footballer to perform best. Feeling like this was already behind him. which is why this isn't the end; it is an uneasy start.

"The club need new people, younger players. My era was over," Messi said. Only, as it turns out, it isn't yet; not through choice, nor by design, but by obligation. Barcelona made Lionel Messi stay, now they must find a way to make it work. But so much has happened, so much damage has been done, so much has been broken along the way that the fear now must be that they too are late.

Eric Woodyard
ESPN-

Disappointment has begun to mount among Milwaukee Bucks players inside the NBA bubble, and it doesn't have anything to do with basketball or falling behind 1-0 to the Miami Heat.

The Bucks suffered a 115-104 loss to the Heat on Monday, but on the same day in Wisconsin, there was also no action taken by the Republican-controlled legislature on an issue that's important to the team.

In a special session called by Gov. Tony Evers to pass a package of bills on policing policies after a Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, seven times in the back, Republicans started and recessed in less than 30 seconds -- satisfying requirements of the law that they meet.

That didn't sit well with the Bucks, who chose not to play last Wednesday in protest of Blake's shooting -- a game that was postponed to Saturday.
"We're trying to find that balance. I think there's things going on in our country that are more important than basketball and we all know that. I think watching what happened [Monday] was disappointing with our legislature gaveling in and gaveling out," veteran Kyle Korver said. "It was disappointing. Surely, there are things to talk about right now, right? Like surely there are things that our state needs leadership in and how can we be better? And, I think what we're trying to figure out as a team is we don't want to be aligned politically. Like sport has always had the opportunity to be a bridge in life in so many ways and that's what we're trying to do as a team. We're trying to be a bridge.

"We're trying to stand in the middle. We're trying to stand for what's right. We're trying to stand for people, but we're demanding that our leaders be better. Was there really nothing to talk about yesterday? And is all that's important in life is ratings and approval? Like what matters in our country?" he added. "We're getting so sidetracked with the narratives that people are trying to create. Our team is trying to stand in the middle. We're trying to be a bridge and I think we're all disappointed in what happened yesterday. We can only control what we can control and we have a big series that we're in. We're trying to do both, but we're trying to stand in the middle. Sport has always had that opportunity. So, we're trying to partner with the other teams in the state and say how can we be leaders? Because we need leadership in our state and our country. We need leadership that is standing for the people.

"We need this right now and we're not getting it. So, we don't want to be pulled one way or the other. We're learning on the fly how to try and be in the middle and it's tough, but that's our heart and I hope everyone knows it in Wisconsin. We're trying to stand for what's right and there are things that need to be addressed in our state."

Per The Associated Press, the bills that Evers wants the legislature to take up would do a number of things, including:

* Ban the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants by police;

* Create statewide standards for police use of force;

* Require police officers to annually complete at least eight hours of training on use-of-force options and de-escalation techniques;

* Require every law enforcement agency to have a use-of-force policy and make it publicly available online.

Republicans kept the session open rather than adjourning it, which means they could take action at a later date.

With Monday's loss, the Bucks became the fourth 1-seed to lose Game 1 in each of their first two series, according to ESPN Stats & Information. They're the 34th team to do it regardless of seed under the current playoff format (since 1983-84); only one of the previous 33 teams went on to win the title (1994-95 Rockets). Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton is focused on completing his basketball task, but he doesn't view them speaking up as an issue, either.

"That's what life is about. It's not always just about basketball. Basketball is a big part of our lives, but off the court, it affects our lives also," Middleton said. "It's disappointing to hear the news about how the meeting went yesterday with the legislature gaveling in and gaveling out in 30 seconds so we just want to keep bringing awareness to that and hope they did the right thing for the people and just bring people together. But as far as balancing it all, I think we're professionals. We know once we step on that basketball court we've got to take care of that business and not let off-court issues or whatever it is affect us on the court, but off the court, we're human beings. We have to do what we need to do."

Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer couldn't speak for how all the players gathered their information or when they became knowledgeable of the situation, but they did recently have a conversation on the topic as a team to share thoughts about it. They're on the same page to bring change, starting within the state they represent.


"Speaking personally, I think it's really disappointing that the people we've elected to govern in Wisconsin, the people who Republicans and Democrats have put in office. We don't claim to know everything about politics, but it just seems like to get in a room, to have a conversation, to debate it, to talk about it ... there's lots of things going on in our state, between COVID-19, social unrest, to come to work, to have conversation, to have debate, to figure out what is going on," Budenholzer said. "It seems like there's significant things that need to be addressed, that need to be considered possible. Governance, leadership is needed at this time. So, for the leadership to gavel in and gavel out after 30 seconds is just disappointing. At the end of the day, it feels like there's work to be done, and they're not doing it.

"And again, as far as are we capable of staying bipartisan as people in sports and I think the conversation it is, is that it doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or Democrat, it seems like you should be in the chambers, having conversations, debating."

Eric Woodyard
ESPN-

Milwaukee Bucks wing Wesley Matthews said the team is not "apologetic" for boycotting Game 5 of their first-round series against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He said it was a decision the team made organically.

"I feel like we did what any team would've done in that situation. And we're not apologetic for what we did, what we feel is right," Matthews said ahead of the Bucks' series-clinching victory over the Magic in Saturday's rescheduled Game 5. "Obviously, with communication it could've been a little bit better, but in a moment like that, sometimes there isn't time for it.

"You can't script change. You can't script moments," he added. "And we saw an opportunity to be with our brother, to show that we're human, to show that this is visibly and emotionally and physically impactful even though we are here in the bubble, disconnected from the outside world in certain retrospect, that it still hits and it's still a problem and a call to legislation to help."

Matthews said the team has been in touch with Blake's family.

The Bucks' boycott sparked several other sports leagues to protest games before resuming play. Their main intention was not only to protest the shooting of Blake, but also to promote voter awareness, social justice, racial equality and police reform in America. Matthews said it wasn't planned ahead of time, as they were "showing humanity" and they didn't anticipate the reaction, while preparing to forfeit the game and go down 3-2 in the series.

"We didn't think that this was gonna turn the way that it did, but we are grateful for the fact that, that moment, that pause, that postponement was able to help everybody reflect again and realize that everybody's gotta step up," Matthews said.

Coach Mike Budenholzer also called the process "organic" and said it was led by guys like assistant coach Darvin Ham, George Hill and Sterling Brown -- who, himself, was a victim of police brutality when he was Tased by police in January 2018. The act was a culmination of several events.


"The idea of going down 3-2 and making that sacrifice or giving that up for what we thought was more important and bigger than a game of basketball, a playoff game," Budenholzer said. "A situation where we could be 3-2, I think the room, I don't think anybody totally grasped exactly what was gonna happen, but certainly knew that this was possible and that this was big and there was no hesitation in regards to going down 3-2."

Although Jaylen Brown is a member of the Boston Celtics -- an Eastern Conference rival of the Bucks -- he said he respected their decision, like many throughout the league.

"We came down here to use our platform, and that's exactly what Milwaukee did; and we all saw its effect, we all saw the awareness that was raised," Brown said Saturday. "So to be honest, I think in hindsight we will appreciate what Milwaukee did. There's a lot of guys that came down here for reasons other than basketball, and to use our platforms; and Milwaukee did exactly that. And if necessary, it could be done again. Hopefully that won't be the case, but using our platform is what a lot of guys came down here for."

Tim Bontemps
ESPN-

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown says he's skeptical that NBA owners will back up their pledges to support NBA players in their push for social justice.

"I'm not sure," Brown said on a Zoom conference call Saturday afternoon. "I can't speak for everybody. I can only speak for myself, and I am not sure. I'm not as confident as I would like to be, I'll say that.

"I think promises are made year after year. We've heard a lot of these terms and words before. We heard them in 2014 -- reform. We're still hearing them now. A lot of them are just reshaping the same ideas and nothing is actually taking place. Long-term goals are one thing, but I think there's stuff in our wheelhouse as athletes with our resources and the people that we're connected to that short-term effect is possible as well.
"Everybody keeps saying, 'Change is going to take this, change is going to take that.' That's the incrementalism idea that keeps stringing you along to make you feel like something's going to happen, something's going to happen. People were dying in 2014, and it's 2020 and people are still dying the same way. They keep saying 'reform, reform, reform,' and ain't nothing being reformed. I'm not as confident as I would like to be."

Brown has been one of the NBA's most outspoken players in the fight for social justice and police reform and to combat racial inequality. He drove to his native Atlanta to lead a protest while the season was suspended, and has repeatedly spoken out about his desire to see changes being made.

During Wednesday night's meeting among the players in the wake of the Milwaukee Bucks choosing not to play their playoff game against the Orlando Magic, Brown asked his fellow players that, if they were going to leave the bubble, were they going to just go home, or were they going to go out and protest for the changes they all wanted?

Part of Brown's hesitation to support the owners stems from his belief that they already didn't go far enough with one of the planks of the three-part initiative the NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, put out Friday afternoon as part of the official announcement of the playoffs resuming Saturday.

Brown said that while the NBA owners agreed to make any arena that is owned by the team's owner a location that can be used as a voting center, originally all 29 NBA arenas were supposed to be involved.

"Initially, when we went into those discussions with the board of governors, every arena was supposed to be the case, not just arenas that were owned by the team that we play for," Brown said. "Every arena needs to be open. Voter suppression is real. I don't understand why that's a problem or that's an issue. But every arena should be open, it should be available in access to be able to have people of color, disadvantaged people to feel like they can vote.

"Voting shouldn't be this hard. It shouldn't be this much of a disconnect between. It should be something easy. And yet, there [are] less and less voting polls in certain communities, less and less workers in certain communities. And it makes it extremely difficult. It's difficult, it already is already. It makes it even more difficult to get outside and vote. So, I would like to see every NBA team that regardless of what was agreed upon ... open [their arena] and I would like to see more players and athletes, people of influence, bring it to their cities to kind of combat that."

Despite his reservations, Brown praised the work that the NBA and the players have done in Orlando -- but also expressed his frustration at how the work they have done hasn't led to the changes he'd like to see.

"I think the NBA did a good job initially about putting Black Lives Matter on the court, our jerseys have a message behind them, TV timeouts, we've done numerous amounts of videos, and it's still not enough," Brown said. "People are still getting killed in the street, and the climate of America is still the same."

He also praised the Bucks, as he did during that meeting Wednesday, for their decision not to play, and highlighted the awareness that it brought to the causes the players are fighting for. He also said, on multiple occasions, that "It could be done again," if a situation arose where it was necessary.

Brown did, however, express disappointment on the contents of that meeting becoming public -- and, specifically, on how it was portrayed as a divisive or negative moment. He said he was very happy about the talks that came out of that conversation, and said having the rare opportunity to get players and coaches from 13 teams into one room together was a beneficial, and unifying, one.


"It was supposed to be a private meeting, and I've seen some of the headlines, and I think there's an emphasis on the divisiveness of what took place in those meetings, but what's not being talked about is the unification being shown," he said. "There were a lot of guys in the room who had a lot of pain. We all saw the recent videos, and we've seen the videos over the years, and frankly we feel helpless and we feel tired. I was proud to see a lot of guys come in here and share emotions and have real conversations in the room. Instead, people are focused on the divisiveness of the conversations, but to be honest, getting all of those guys in the same room to talk about one thing was important.

"There's a lot of guys that came down here for reasons other than basketball, and to use our platforms. Milwaukee did exactly that, and if necessary it could be done again. Hopefully that won't be the case, but using our platform is why a lot of guys came down here."