The NBA and National Basketball Players Association released a joint statement announcing that the NBA playoffs will resume on Saturday and that the league will work with the players to expand voting access and to advocate for other social justice efforts.  

"These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community," read the statement. 

"We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together -– in Orlando and in all NBA team markets -– to push for meaningful and sustainable change," it added. 

Saturday's NBA playoff games include Milwaukee against Orlando, Oklahoma City against Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers against Portland. USA Today revealed that as all 13 teams in Orlando resumed practice on Friday, almost 100 NBA employees across departments staged a one-day walkout in solidarity with players.

According to ESPN, among the commitments announced to aid social issues is the immediate establishment of a social justice coalition -- with representation from players, coaches and governors -- that will cover a wide array of issues, including increased voting access, promoting civic engagement and advocating for "meaningful police and criminal justice reform." 

The joint statement came on a third day of postponed NBA playoff games after the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play on Wednesday to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The boycott quickly spread to other NBA teams and several other sports leagues. 

However, a series of urgent meetings and NBA legend Michael Jordan's intervention managed to defuse the tension over racial equality and persuaded players to reverse their decision. 

"It's definitely been a very emotional past couple of days, not only for myself, but everyone," said Oklahoma City Thunder star Chris Paul, who has been president of the NBA Players Association since 2013.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to our players. It's been a hard time. Everyone's shouldering a lot, but the communication that [we're] having is amazing. What everyone saw in the past couple days was guys just needing to reset, to refocus, and that's what we did," he added. 

"It was never about one person. It was never about one team. It was all about all of us together," Paul observed. "When the events happened the other day of the game, we stood in solidarity with our brothers from Milwaukee. Everything that we do is about the brotherhood, about everyone as a whole. So it was never about what is this one team or what is this one player going to do." 

Paul noted that the unification displayed by the players during the NBA boycott is unprecedented. 

"Fifteen years in this league and I've never seen anything like it," Paul said. "But the voices that were heard, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it."