As the NBA was scheduled to tip-off its slate of playoff games Wednesday with the Milwaukee Bucks vs. the Orlando Magic, we were treated to …

The sound of silence.

No rousing introduction of the lineups, no opening whistle. No bouncing of the ball. Nothing.

Even as we become inured to spectator-less arenas of the bubble and silent cut-outs, this was different, a game-time arena in the postseason devoid of players from either team by choice.

For in their silence by walking out of Wednesday’s games, soon to be followed by other teams and supported by the league which quickly postponed the games, the NBA players spoke loudly.

Eloquently enough that some Major League Baseball teams, including the Milwaukee Brewers, WNBA and MLS teams that were also scheduled to play Wednesday, postponed their games.

Later, of course, there would be tweets and statements and voices raised in anger and protest surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., Sunday. Another in a too long line of Black citizens shot by police.

But in the action of the Bucks was a pivotal point in American sports that was immediately palpable, significant in its simplicity but powerful in its escalation and resolve.

This went beyond kneeling and way past the message-emblazoned T-shirts of recent weeks. In unison the teams were saying by their calculated absence that it was well past time to bring this brutality to a stop.

A point where if playoff basketball had to come to a halt in order to bring wider attention to systemic racism that had to cease, then so be it.

The day before the Detroit Lions had called off their scheduled practice to hold a team sessions to talk about the events of Kenosha.

But the Bucks, whose home area is less than 40 miles from where an unarmed Blake was shot seven times in the back, knew they had to go further. Just last year Milwaukee guard Sterling Brown was thrown to the ground and guns put on him for a parking violation in Milwaukee.

So, Blake’s shooting particularly hit home to the Bucks, even as they were hundreds of miles away, deep in the NBA’s Florida bubble.

This seemingly endless string of tragic events combined with COVID-19-prompted concerns have empowered athletes on all levels in 2020 as never before. But it is the NBA players, whose presence and visibility commands the biggest platform, that have thrust themselves into the lead, witness it being the first pro league to halt play in March due to the pandemic.

Theirs is a players league, something the league office and franchise operators have come to acknowledge and work with. And, right now, while MLB plays on days when it doesn’t have pandemic issues, and before the NFL kicks off its season, the NBA players have the biggest stage.

When they choose, on principle, not to take the floor is when their voice speaks loudest.

And Wednesday it echoed through an empty arena, across America and beyond, unmistakable in its import.

Prior to his death last month, Georgia congressman and long-time civil rights activist John Lewis reminded younger generations, “Never be afraid to make some noise …”

Even if you deftly use silence in order to achieve it.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.