The first protest was staged in 1959 by Minneapolis Lakers forward Elgin Baylor during his rookie season. That year, Baylor and his teammates traveled to Charleston, West Virginia to play the Cincinnati Royals, but on arrival he and several other Black players on the Lakers’ roster were denied entry to the Kanawha Hotel.

According to the Charleston-Gazette Mail, upon arrival, the hotel’s front desk clerk said, “The three colored boys will have to go somewhere else. This is a nice, respectable hotel. We can’t take the colored boys.”

In response, the entire team moved to a different hotel, but Baylor and his two Black teammates, Boo Ellis and Ed Fleming, were also denied service in a restaurant.

While Baylor accompanied his teammates to the arena where they were scheduled to play, he did not dress for the game. After hearing the news, the Mail article says, Baylor’s teammate Rodney ‘Hot Rod’ Hundley, a white player from Charleston, urged him to reconsider.

“Rod, I’m a human being. I’m not an animal put in a cage and let out for the show,” Baylor reportedly said.

Baylor’s choice to play was not publicly announced prior to the game, but he spoke to reporters afterward to recount the story, including the treatment at the restaurant, as his reasoning for sitting out.

Baylor went on to play 13 seasons for the Lakers, who moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960. During his career, he was selected 11 times as an NBA All-Star, was awarded Rookie of The Year in 1959 and led the Lakers to an NBA Championship in 1972.

But protests didn’t end with Baylor.

In 1961, Boston Celtics center Bill Russell led a similar boycott after two of his Black teammates faced racial injustice in Lexington, Kentucky.

During the 1961-62 NBA season, Russell was looking to help the Celtics secure their fifth NBA championship when the team traveled to Lexington to face the St. Louis Hawks.

During the team’s trip, Sam Jones and Thomas “Satch” Sanders, were denied service at the team’s hotel.

“We had gone downstairs to eat, and they said, ‘Well, we really can’t serve you people,’” Sanders said in 2018 while speaking about the incident.

Following the incident, Sanders, Jones and K.C. Jones—another Black player on the Celtics roster—were led by Russell to Red Auerbach’s office, telling their coach they were planning on taking the next flight back to Boston.

“I told Red we were leaving,” Russell said in 2013, according to Boston.com. “I said it was because it was important to me that everybody, everywhere, knows that the Black players are deciding they’ll stand up for themselves.”

Auerbach tried to persuade the players to stay, as tickets to the game were already purchased, but Russell and his teammates refused. A fifth teammate, Al Butler, and two Black players on the Hawks’ roster also joined the walkout. One of those Hawks’ athletes, Cleo Hill, had also been denied service in Lexington earlier that year.

The day after the group arrived back in Boston, a reporter reached Russell by phone and asked about what happened in Lexington. “If I can help it I will never again play where there is segregation,” Russell replied, according to The Last Pass: Cousy Russell, the Celtics and What Matters in the End.

“I think of athletes as entertainers. One of the ways the American Negro has attempted to show he is a human being is to demonstrate our race to the people through entertainment, and thus become accepted,” Russell said according to the book. “I am coming to the realization that we are accepted as entertainers, but that we are not accepted as people in some places.”

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, players in the league decided to resume playoff games following Wednesday’s cancellations, though Newsweek could not confirm the information before publication.

However, the WNBA, which also canceled games in response to Blake’s shooting, has not announced any plans to resume play, nor has the MLB, which postponed three games scheduled for Wednesday. Several NFL teams canceled practice after the Detriot Lions became the first franchise to suspend operations. Five MLS soccer matches were also postponed and tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from a tennis tournament.

“As a black woman, I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis,” the two-time Grand Slam champion wrote in a statement.

Russ Spielman, Russell’s agent, told Newsweek that the former Celtic was not currently participating in media interviews, but Wednesday Russell posted his support of current NBA players.

“I’m moved by all the @NBA players for standing up for what is right,” Russell wrote.

Russell also applauded former Houston Rocket and co-host of NBA on TNT Kenny Smith, after he decided to support the players and walked off the set during the show. “To my man @TheJetonTNT I would like to say Thank you for what you did to show your support for the players. I am so proud of you. Keep getting in good trouble,” Russell wrote.