Protests Continue

Athletes across sports continued their protests for social justice yesterday. While NBA players decided to resume the playoffs, the league did postpone its three Thursday games with hopes of returning to play today or Saturday.

The Milwaukee Bucks set off a ripple effect Wednesday when the team sat out its playoff game against the Orlando Magic and games across sports were postponed or canceled. This new wave of stoppages is a renewed focus on social justice following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.

Impact Across Sports

The WNBA continued its pause in play, declaring yesterday “A Day of Reflection, A Day of Informed Action and Mobilization.”

After criticism for barely acknowledging Wednesday’s events, the NHL postponed its two playoff games on both Thursday and Friday. The decision came from a player-led movement backed by the Hockey Diversity Alliance.

Several NFL teams canceled practice and held team-wide social justice discussions.

A group of Black MLB players pledged their game-day salaries for Aug. 27-28 for racial equality, while several MLB games were postponed Thursday.

UCLA is seeking more than $200 million in damages from Under Armour in a breach of contract complaint filed Wednesday. The lawsuit comes as Under Armour has tried to get out of its 15-year apparel deal with the school.

Signed in 2016, the deal — worth at least $280 million — is the largest-ever signed by an NCAA school.

Under Armour has struggled this year, reporting a $131 million operating loss in its second quarter on July 31. UCLA’s athletic department had a $22 million deficit in the 2018-19 academic year.

Nebraska Players Sue The Big Ten

Several Nebraska football players are suing the Big Ten for breach of contract for postponing the season. The players are hoping to make the conference reverse its decision so they can play and are seeking up to $75,000 in damages.

A sports law expert told FOS while the players’ case is flimsy without evidence, it could “keep the pressure on [Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren] as he fights for his job.”

Amazon debuted a health and wellness tracker to rival those from companies like Apple, Fitbit and WHOOP. Along with tracking stats like body-fat percentage, heart rate and sleep, the company says it will also monitor social and emotional well-being.

Through its membership — $3.99 a month after an upfront six-month commitment, currently at $64.99 — it will offer content from partners like the American Heart Association, Headspace and the Mayo Clinic.

Halo is Amazon’s first entry in the health and wellness space, but it is another move to fit the company into its customers’ everyday lives. Amazon Alexa has been integrated into everything from earbuds to ovens and will help navigate aisles at the upcoming Amazon Fresh grocery stores.

The wearables market is expected to reach $52 billion this year. Along with wearables, staking a claim on the $3.5 trillion healthcare space seems to be a race between mega tech companies as Apple looks to increase its health offerings and Google is awaiting regulatory approval of its $2.1 billion deal to acquire Fitbit.

Walmart has joined Microsoft’s bid for TikTok’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A deal for the social media platform is reportedly nearing completion, rumored to be in the $20 billion to $30 billion range.

Negotiations are down to the Microsoft-led bid and Oracle. Walmart had been working with SoftBank on a separate bid, but doesn’t have the technology backbone needed for an independent acquisition.

TikTok’s owner, China-based ByteDance, was ordered by the White House to sell its U.S. operations by mid-September because of alleged security concerns. With TikTok’s U.S. future up in the air, sports teams will keep an eye on the outcome. The platform recently signed a 3-year, $10 million deal to become a New York Yankees partner as baseball looks to draw younger fans.

Whichever party ends up with TikTok will be without Kevin Mayer, who resigned as CEO Thursday. Mayer joined TikTok less than four months ago after running Disney’s streaming operations.