INDIANAPOLIS — As college football players used social media last summer to speak out about social injustice, push the N.C.A.A. to allow them to profit from their fame and campaign for protective health measures (and a return to play) during the pandemic, a small group of basketball players from around the country took notice.
What they observed was how, when the games began in September, the movement largely petered out.
It’s a lesson the basketball players, led by Jordan Bohannon of Iowa, Geo Baker of Rutgers and Isaiah Livers of Michigan, are trying to put to use now in striking a delicate balance: using the enormous stage of the N.