Ian Begley, SNY.tv | Twitter |

In the days leading up to Friday's call among dozens of NBA players to discuss the plan for the restart of the 2019-20 season, a significant number of players on an Eastern Conference playoff team expressed strong concern about playing in Orlando, sources told SNY.

Those concerns - related to the coronavirus, life in the NBA's bubble and the current widespread protests over racial inequality - were reportedly echoed by dozens of players around the league on Friday night in a conference call to talk about the restart.

Union exec and Nets star Kyrie Irving was among the driving forces behind Friday's call, SNY sources confirm. There was no clear consensus on the call, but several players expressed concern over playing amid the social unrest due to systemic racism, per sources.

According to The Athletic, Irving told players on the call, "I don't support going into Orlando. I'm not with the systematic racism and the bullshit. Something smells a little fishy."

The NBPA team reps voted to confirm the NBA Board of Governor's plan to resume the season earlier this month. Per Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report, a significant number of players were upset that they didn't have a voice in the process.

"I don't think they end up agreeing not to play, but a lot of guys are upset," one source in touch with several players prior to Friday night's call told SNY.

Irving was among those involved in the NBPA's vote to approve the plan. The plan calls for 22 teams to participate in a 'bubble' environment in Orlando. Both the league and players union have said that they need to work out a significant amount of details before a full plan is finalized.

If the players elected not to participate in the season restart, they would be forgoing salary and the league would likely lose a significant amount of money in revenue - even more than is projected due to the coronavirus crisis and the imbroglio with China over Daryl Morey's tweet in the beginning of the season.

The current collective bargaining agreement could be aborted. So a decision against playing comes with significant financial ramifications.
But numerous players expressed concern over gathering in group settings amid the coronavirus.

The NBA and NBPA would do all they could to provide a safe environment, but there's no way to ensure that all players will remain healthy. According to ESPN, teams will be able to bring in substitute players in place of those who decide not to play the rest of the season. The NBA is also planning on allowing replacements for players who test positive for coronavirus, or sustain injury.

Echoing the thoughts of many players, Carmelo Anthony said this week that he's undecided about playing in Orlando when the NBA restarts the season.

"As far as actually playing and going back to Orlando, I'm still up the air a little bit because we don't have all the details, we don't know a lot of information," Anthony said in an interview with TNT's Ernie Johnson on the NBA social media channels earlier this week. "So until we have that it's kind of hard to just commit to it 100 percent."

Malcolm Brogdon, a member of the NBPA executive committee, explained on JJ Redick's podcast that several players are undecided on returning to the court.

"With sort of what's going on in the background between COVID, the health issues and the civil unrest, in the Black Community but also just the country as a whole, I think we're going to have a lot of guys that will have mixed opinions, mixed views on whether they'll come back," Brogdon said on the podcast, which was released prior to Friday's call among players. "Whether they come back and sit out, whether they'll come back and demonstrate. It's definitely going to be interesting."

Anthony hopeful for social change

Carmelo Anthony was extremely active in the community when he was a Knick, particularly in the wake of Freddie Gray's killing by police in Baltimore. He used his platform to share his thoughts on the importance of social justice and systemic inequality in the United States.

Anthony spoke to Turner's Ernie Johnson this week about the current protests in the wake of George Floyd's killing.

"It's years and years of discomfort, it's years and years of anger, of pent up frustration. It's just an accumulation of a lot of things that's been happening," Anthony said. "Not just for the past 10 year or 20 years but for the past 400 years that we've been dealing with his stuff. And we're actually starting to see the cycle return."

Anthony added: "The fact that we're able to watch this over and over and see this publicly… I think my people are just tired."

Anthony commended the NBA players who have taken part in protests but hopes that there will be tangible change.

"The protests and the marches are all great but now it's time to put a plan in motion and go execute," he said. "(Look at) laws, local laws, education system, be honest and hold people accountable."

Anthony also reflected on his Knicks tenure.

"My time in New York, as everybody knows, was rocky, up and down. But I had a great, great experience in New York. New York is a place that changed me from a young man, a boy coming into the NBA, rough around the edges. New York molded me to the person that I am.

"I say that because I became wiser, I became smarter. I had to learn how to maneuver through a lot of things and how to move through a lot of the BS and how to see things for what it is. But also I had to put a shield around me because there was so many things that were happening in New York, and then you had basketball…. So everything is coming at different angles, different times, different speeds. So New York made me slow down, really think, really put things into perspective and really accept things for what it is.

"I don't regret anything coming out of New York other than I had probably 200 teammates over seven years in New York, four GMs, four coaches," Anthony said while laughing with Johnson. "Every year, you look at the team photo and it's me and two other people that's there throughout the seven years."

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