NBA Takes a Shot at Increasing Voter Turnout With Unprecedented Move to Not Have Games on Election Day: NBC News
The NBA will not have games on Election Day this year – an unprecedented move, according to an exclusive report by NBC News’ Shaquille Brewster on Tuesday, published one day before the season schedule is set to be released.
The move seeks to “build on what we saw in 2020 when they turned nearly two dozen team facilities and arenas like the one behind me into voting locations,” said Brewster on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, reporting from the Barclays Center, the home of the Brooklyn Nets.
Along with there being no games on election day, “all 30 NBA teams will play the day before the Election Day for what they’re calling a civic engagement night.”
The NBA had a handful of games on Election Day in years past. There were four games in 2018, six games in 2016, eight games in 2014 and three games in 2012.
James Cadogan, the executive director of the NBA Social Justice Coalition, acknowledged the move as “unusual,” but defended the decision to have no games on Nov. 8.
“We don’t usually change the schedule for an external event,” he told Brewster. “But voting and Election Day are 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.”
Brewster asked Cadogan, “What’s your response to people who say no games on Election Day, that’s a symbolic gesture?”
“I would say to them the symbols really matter,” replied Cadogan.
“So if we do something that some might call a symbol, I would say that’s a good symbol,” he added. “If we were 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 would support.”
Brewster noted that the NBA talks “about voting and politics through the lens of voting.”
He continued:
The Social Justice Coalition, that is the group that was formed after the murder of George Floyd, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, you have people saying this is the NBA saying if you want to participate, if you want to see policy changes in this country, you need to go out and participate to vote. And they’re doing what they can to make it easier for fans, players and staff to participate in this midterm election.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
