NBA players boycott? Why 'boycott' is not the correct term

[Celerity]

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-08-26/nba-players-boycott-why-thats-not-the-correct-term

As professional sports contests evaporated Wednesday afternoon to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., LeBron James posted a brief message on Instagram. “BOYCOTTED,” the Lakers star wrote, “NOT *POSTPONED.”

What started with the Milwaukee Bucks refusing to take the court for Game 5 of their NBA playoff series against the Orlando Magic quickly led to the league’s two other scheduled games, including the Lakers facing the Portland Trail Blazers, not taking place. The actions to draw attention to social injustice and police brutality spread to MLB, MLS and the WNBA, where some or all scheduled games were called off.

But what’s the correct term for what happened? Boycotts? Postponements? Strikes? Or something else? “From a pure legal standpoint, I would term these wildcat strikes,” said Joseph Longo, an adjunct professor who teaches sports law at Loyola Law School. He’s also an attorney and MLB player agent.

Despite James and other players referring to the actions as boycotts, the traditional definition of the term revolves around an organized effort to hurt an entity financially in order to drive change or attract attention. That doesn’t fit this situation. The players aren’t trying to damage their employers — or affiliated entities like sponsors or television networks — but instead want to draw attention to the Blake shooting and social injustice. “I think it’s a euphemism for a work stoppage,” Thomas Lenz, a law lecturer at USC and attorney specializing in labor and employment law, said of players describing the postponements as boycotts. “When employees decide to withhold their services … that is technically strike activity.”

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