NBA gives employees day off with pay for Juneteenth

For the first time ever, the NBA has given employees Juneteenth off with pay, encouraging workers to take the day to reflect on black history and the current state of racial inequality in America.

Juneteenth is a day that celebrates the end of slavery, though it's not actually on the day that slavery was ended in the United States. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery on Jan. 1, 1863. However, slavery continued in the U.S. for over two years after it was officially outlawed. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed slaveowners and slaves about slavery ending.

The NBA is also offering employees a virtual screening of "John Lewis: Good Trouble," which focuses on Lewis' decades of fighting for social justice and civil rights. Lewis will be participating in a prerecorded Q&A, to which NBA teams have been invited to participate.

Several NBA players will be on Twitter having live discussions, including Wizards guard John Wall, Lakers guard Danny Green, and Grizzlies forward Justice Winslow.

As the NBA heads towards resuming its season at the end of July, some players, including Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard, have expressed their reservations about the plan. Their primary complaint has been that the NBA season would distract from the nationwide protesting that has taken place over the last few weeks in response to George Floyd's death.

"Our main objective is to raise awareness and gain transparency on the things that concern us collectively," Howard said in a statement shared by the Athletic's Shams Charania. "Many of our fellow players are afraid to voice their concerns and are continuing to follow along with what they believe they have to."