You would think it would have been as simple as printing the shirts and giving them to the players, but there was real concern especially with the Royal Family in attendance, that the NBA would try to stop the shirts from being delivered to Nets and Cavs.
The backstory of how the shirts eventually made it to Barclays is like something out of a movie.
The rapper Jay-Z and a security guard at Barclays Center were involved in the process that led to Nets and Cavaliers players wearing black t-shirts bearing the phrase “I Can’t Breathe” during warmups on Monday night, according to a report from the New York Times.
Once they were able to get the shirts they had to sneak the shirts passed NBA personnel.
The final hurdle was navigating the T-shirts past arena security. The NBA’s stance was clear: The league did not want its players wearing the T-shirts during warm-ups. So Williams recruited a security guard to take the large box from Aminzadeh, Perez and Brown on the Dean Street entrance of the arena, Skolnik said.
It felt risky, Aminzadeh said, because the street was already flooded with police officers and other security personnel. So he tried to be discreet.
“We didn’t want the whole operation to get shut down before it happened,” said Aminzadeh, who piled 38 of the T-shirts in a box, more than enough for players and both teams’ support staffs, and kept the remainder for protesters who were beginning to gather outside. He made the handoff to the security guard at 6:30 p.m.
The NBA won’t fine the players because that would be a PR disaster, but it is clear if they can stop them they will try, they just didn’t succeed in this case.