26. Bigger Than Basketball: The Milwaukee Bucks and the NBA Social Justice Walkout of 2020
With a title within reach, players refusing to take the court is a sports marketing nightmare... unless it's for a good cause.
Lead Balloon - Marketing, Public Relations and Strategic Communications Stories · Dusty Weis
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Show Notes
With a shot at an NBA title on the line, an entire basketball team refuses to take the court. They won’t even come out of the locker room.
It’s a sports marketing nightmare. And just last year, it came true for the management of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team.
Alex Lasry is the Senior Vice President of the Bucks. And even though he was shocked just like the rest of us when the 2020 walk-out happened, he supported the team’s decision whole-heartedly.
Because there was an entire summer of reasons why the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t take the court on August 26, 2020. But they crystalized around the police shooting of a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the violence and even deaths that followed.
In this episode, Alex explains what went through his mind as a sports marketing professional during the historic events of last summer, and explains how the Bucks' new ownership group has strived to push back against decades of institutional racism in Milwaukee.
Plus, CBS Sports Senior Editor Andrew Julian joins us to put the Bucks' wildcat walk-out in the proper historic context.
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