Report: Some players worried about optics of NBA restart amid social climate

A "significant" number of NBA players are unhappy with their level of involvement in the National Basketball Players Association's vote to approve the league's plan to restart the 2019-20 season, Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes reports.

The NBPA executive committee unanimously approved the league's proposal June 5. However, discussions on health and safety protocols for the tentative late July restart at Walt Disney World in Orlando remain ongoing, The New York Times' Marc Stein reports.

Among the central concerns for some players is that restarting a league predominantly populated by black men amid the COVID-19 pandemic presents inappropriate optics in light of the ongoing social justice movement surrounding racial equality in the United States, according to Haynes.

"What message are we sending by agreeing to this during this time?" an unnamed black player told Haynes. "We're out here marching and protesting, and yet we all leave our families in these scary times and gather to perform at a place where the owners won't be at? What type of sense does that make?

"We'll be going backward. That place isn't that magical."

The NBA and the players' association are expected to agree to a provision that would allow players to sit out during the resumed season. However, any player who doesn't participate for the remainder of the campaign would reportedly not receive their full salary.