NBA play-offs resume today

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP)

NBA players want change that makes their communities safer. They want people to vote - hopefully in their home arenas.

And they want to keep playing basketball.

Teams returned to the court yesterday after the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association agreed on commitments that made players comfortable continuing.

An emotional Chris Paul, the union president, detailed the events of the previous two days when players upset by the latest police shooting of a black man left them considering leaving the Disney campus and going home.

‘’We’re all hurt, we’re all tired of just seeing the same thing over and over again and everybody just expects us to be OK just because we get paid great money,’’ Paul said. ‘’We’re human, we have real feelings and I’m glad that we got a chance to get in a room and talk with one another and not just cross paths and say good luck in your game today.’’

All 13 teams remaining in the post-season scheduled practice yesterday - the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as Paul noted - though some declined to speak with reporters. Games are to resume today with the Milwaukee Bucks taking on the Orlando Magic in the rescheduled Game 5 of their series.

The other two games today will be Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Houston Rockets followed by the Portland Trail Blazers against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Play stopped on Wednesday when the Bucks didn’t take the court for their play-off game against Orlando, showing their frustration with the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin and acts of racial injustice.