Mark Madden: Actions speak louder than words for pro athletes

The NBA’s players should have left the bubble and canceled the rest of the league’s playoffs.

By doing that, the players would cost the league, its franchise owners and its television partners millions in revenue. The men affected have real power and could influence legit change.

Or they could lock out the players indefinitely, drastically diminishing their earnings and lifestyles. Righteous cause can involve risk. Colin Kaepernick knows. So did Muhammad Ali.

Instead, the players decided to continue the playoffs. A few, chosen based on star power, will speak with great anger and gravitas. Slogans, signage and T-shirts will be brandished in abundance. The league and its owners, having dodged a bullet, will vacantly play along.

Basketball will be played until the next incident of social injustice. Then the same scenario will play out: Brief stoppage, much hand-wringing and discussion, on with the games.

The players always bluff. The league, owners and networks know that. It happened before the bubble was established, then happened again this week.

Actions speak louder than words. The players want to play and get paid. Another flurry of showbiz notwithstanding, their priorities are clear.

Ditching the playoffs would forfeit much revenue, shrink the salary cap and void the CBA. The players would lose money, though the owners would lose much more.

Ending the season offered no guarantees. But it’s a legitimate stand. What if the NFL’s players jump on board? Dominoes start falling. Who knows what happens?

What’s happening instead is business as usual. Unless the workers block the flow of revenue for the company and/or get significant concessions, a strike is ineffective. That’s union 101.

Postponements mean nothing. It’s mere optics. The calendar gets stretched a bit. That goes for the NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS and WNBA, as well as NFL teams that skip a day of practice.

The NBA deftly managed Milwaukee’s boycott on Wednesday. Had the league got flustered, it would have awarded a forfeit win to Orlando (and been justified in doing so). Instead, the day’s games were postponed. The league took control.

The players needed to end the season. They didn’t. Sure, awareness was created. But didn’t it already exist?

The end game for the social justice movement in pro sports isn’t defined. The athletes may overestimate their impact. Or perhaps they don’t, and that’s why the NBA’s season will continue.

Did NBA players expect cops to be arrested because games weren’t played? Did Milwaukee’s players think Wisconsin’s attorney general would quiver because the Bucks might bypass a shot at their first NBA title since 1971? Those things had zero chances of happening.

The NHL postponed games Thursday and Friday. That’s a bit late to the dance after playing Wednesday.

Hockey is between a rock and a hard place. Americans comprise 26.5% of the NHL. The league is otherwise Canadian and European. The Stanley Cup playoffs are taking place in Canada. Should players from Canada and Europe be compelled to confront an American problem? The police aren’t the same kind of menace in Canada and Europe.

Anything done should be out of passion and sincerity. Those teams and players that play or practice aren’t necessarily against social justice.

It will be curious to see what the NFL does when games begin. Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard of the New York Giants won’t rule out their team boycotting a game. The Giants host the Steelers on Sept. 14 in the opening game for both teams.

The NFL isn’t inside a bubble and playing a schedule that’s easily adjusted, like the NBA and NHL. But each team has a bye week, so something could be finagled.

Or perhaps the Giants forfeit, and the Steelers start 1-0. Let the Super Bowl talk begin.

It would be interesting to see the NFL’s reaction if a team went on strike. It would be even more interesting to see Art Rooney II’s reaction if the Steelers went on strike.

But the latter is highly unlikely: Coach Mike Tomlin said Thursday the Steelers never considered not practicing. A vote was not taken. Discussion was brief. For better or worse, the Steelers are a football team first.