There won't be any major sports being played on Tuesday night, meaning the sports world will be at a temporary standstill during Election Day 2020. All NFL offices and facilities are closed, for instance, and many stadiums and arenas across the country are being used as voting centers. And while several athetes' and sports figures' voices will be heard on this important day, live sports action won't be a part of it, due to scheduling changes forced upon us by the coronavirus pandemic.
But this wasn't the case during the 2008 presidential election, as the NBA season had kicked off on October 28. Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics had gotten off to a 2-1 start by the time their November 4 clash with the Houston Rockets rolled around, a game which took place on Election Day.
In an appearance on the "ESPN Daily" podcast, Rivers recalled a heartwarming episode that took place from courtside.
"It's the most beautiful story I've ever seen," Rivers said. "We were playing the Houston Rockets that night and the election was going on and there was a black couple sitting right next to the bench."
Rivers believes it was the middle of the final quarter of play when the Celtics held a slight lead. Let's place us with around 7:00 minutes to go, then, right after Kevin Garnett knocked in a 19-footer to put the Celtics up 87-86 over Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and company.
"This black man is hugging his wife and she's crying in the front row, right next to our bench," Rivers recalled. "She's crying pretty loud, enough that I turn around to the guy and I said, 'Sir, is everything alright? Do you want me to get security or anything?'
"And he says, 'Security? We have our first black president.' And he looked at me with tears and I get choked up thinking about it."
Rivers, taken aback himself by the powerful news, opted to call a timeout. If I'm guessing correctly, it was the full timeout they took with 5:50 remaining, following a Ray Allen layup to put them up three. But the score, at that point, was not what was important.
"I called a timeout to tell our players that Barack Obama would be the next president," Rivers said. "That was a special moment that I'll never forget, and with this election I don't know if I'll be that emotional, but I just want it to go right."
That's Rivers' biggest worry, however, as we head into what could be a tumultuous sequence of days.
"I know that the masses are speaking, and I've never been more scared in my life for an election because there's so much talk, so I'm just hoping that it's done the right way," Rivers said. "I guess that's my fear — that it's not — and it better be. We live in a country (where) there should be no voter obstruction, nothing illegally done, and (honestly) I'm worried about it.
"I'm hoping it's done the right way."
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