This historic, euphoric night was not just the restart of the NBA season; it was an affirmation of the NBA’s stated commitment to turn this entire experiment into a massive public-service announcement it supports racial and social justice.
Being in a mostly empty gym in the middle of a mostly barren Orlando theme park Thursday night for the first official NBA basketball game in exactly 141 days was exciting, emotional, surreal and, admittedly, a little sad, too. Sad because we’ve all been through so much since the NBA season was shut down nearly five months ago and, yet, we still have so far to go.