NBA suspends Minnesota game over fatal police shooting

(Photo by RONALD MARTINEZ / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

LOS ANGELES – The NBA postponed Monday’s game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Brooklyn Nets in the wake of the fatal police shooting of a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb.

“The National Basketball Association announced today that in light of the tragic events in the Minneapolis area yesterday, tonight’s game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center has been postponed,” the league said in a statement.

The postponement came after the shooting of Daunte Wright by police in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on Sunday.

The shooting, which comes with Minneapolis already on edge because of the George Floyd murder trial, sparked protests and looting overnight.

The Minnesota Twins baseball team had earlier Monday called off their game against the Boston Red Sox on Monday following the shooting.

Outrage over last year’s police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis swept across the US sports world, with several NBA players joining nationwide protests.

The police shooting of another Black man, Jacob Blake, in Wisconsin in August last year prompted a wave of sporting boycotts led by the Milwaukee Bucks, with athletes from the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer all downing tools to protest against systemic racism.

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